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^j)  Jlr.  JFifiike. 

ESSAYS    AND    PHILOSOPHY. 


A  CENTURY  OF  SCIENCE,  and  other  Essays.  Crown 
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MYTHS  AND  MYTH-MAKERS:  Old  Tales  and  Supersti- 
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sophy.    2  vols,  crown  8vo,  $6.00. 

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For  complete  list  of  Mr.  Fiske^s  Historical  and  Fhilosophical 
Works  and  Essays,  see  pages  at  the  back  of  this  work. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  COMPANY, 
Boston  and  New  York. 


A  CENTURY  OF  SCIENCE 
anil  0t'i)tv  €&m^ 


BY 

JOHSr  FISKE 


Out  of  the  shadows  of  night 
The  world  rolls  into  light  : 
It  is  daybreak  every  iv here. 

LONGFBliOW. 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

^f)t  Bifaerjitie  ^9rE|S3^,  Cambnlioe 

1899 


COPYRIGHT,    1899,   BY  JOHN    FISKE 
ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 


DEDICATOEY  EPISTLE 

TO 

THOMAS  SERGEANT  PERRY, 

FBOFESSOB  OF  ENGLISH  LITEBATURE  IN  THE  KEIO  OIJUKU,   AT  TOKYO. 


Dear  Tom,  —  It  has  long  been  my  wish  to  make 
you  the  patron  saint  or  tutelar  divinity  of  some 
book  of  mine,  and  it  has  lately  occurred  to  me  that 
it  ought  to  be  a  book  of  the  desultory  and  chatty 
sort  that  would  remind  you,  in  'your  present  exile 
at  the  world's  eastern  rim,  of  the  many  quiet  even- 
ings of  old,  when,  over  a  tankard  of  mellow  Octo- 
ber and  pipe  of  fragrant  Virginia,  while  Yule  logs 
crackled  blithely  and  the  music  of  pattering  sleet 
was  upon  the  window-pane,  we  used  to  roam  in 
fancy  through  the  universe  and  give  free  utterance 
to  such  thoughts,  sedate  or  frivolous,  as  seemed  to 
us  good.  I  dare  say  the  present  volume  may  serve 
as  an  epitome  of  many  such  old-time  sessions  of 
sweet  discourse,  which  I  trust  we  shall  by  and  by 
repeat  and  renew. 

But  there  is  one  link  of  association  which  in  my 
mind  especially  connects  you  with  the  present  occa- 


iv  Dedicatory  Epistle 

sion.  My  theory  of  the  causes  and  effects  of  the 
prolongation  of  human  infancy,  with  reference  to 
the  evolution  of  man,  was  first  published  in  the 
"North  American  Review"  for  October,  1873, 
when  you  were  the  editor  of  that  periodical.  The 
article,  which  was  entitled  "The  Progress  from 
Brute  to  Man,"  was  made  up  of  two  chapters  of 
my  "  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy "  (part  ii. 
chaps,  xxi.,  xxii.),  which  was  published  a  year 
later,  in  October,  1874.  The  value  of  the  theory 
therein  set  forth  was  at  once  recognized  by  many 
leading  naturalists.  In  the  address  of  Vice-Presi- 
dent Edward  Morse,  before  the  American  Associa- 
tion, at  its  meeting  at  Buffalo  in  1876,  my  theory 
receives  extended  notice  as  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant contributions  yet  made  to  the  Doctrine  of  Evo- 
lution ;  and  it  is  declared  that  I  have  given  "  for 
the  first  time  a  rational  explanation  of  the  origin 
and  persistence  of  family  relations,  and  thence 
communal  [i.  e.,  clan]  relations,  and,  finally,  of 
society."  ^ 

Uncontrollable  circumstances  have  prevented 
my  giving  to  the  further  elaboration  of  this  infancy 
theory  the   time  and  attention  which  it  deserves 

^  Morse,  What  American  Zoologists  have  done  for  Evolution, 
pp.  37,  39-41,  Salem,  1876 ;  Proc.  Amer.  Assoc,  for  Adv.  of  Sci., 
vol.  zsiL 


Dedicatory  Epistle  v 

and  demands ;  but  in  my  little  book,  "  The  Destiny 
of  Man,"  published  in  1884,  I  gave  a  popular  ex- 
position of  it  which  has  made  it  widely  known  in 
all  English-speaking  countries  and  on  the  continent 
of  Europe,  as  well  as  among  your  worthy  Japanese 
neighbours,  Tom,  who  have  done  me  the  honour  to 
translate  some  of  my  books  into  their  vernacular. 
The  theory  has  become  still  further  popularized 
through  having  furnished  the  starting-point  for 
some  of  the  most  characteristic  speculations  of  the 
late  Henry  Drummond.  In  these  and  other  ways 
my  infancy  theory  has  so  far  entered  into  the  cur- 
rent thoughts  of  the  present  age  that  people  have 
(naturally  enough)  begun  to  forget  with  whom  it 
originated.  For  example,  in  the  recent  book, 
"  Through  Nature  to  God,"  while  criticising  a  re- 
mark of  Huxley's,  I  found  it  desirable  to  make  a 
restatement  of  the  infancy  theory;  whereupon  a 
friendly  reviewer,  referring  to  that  particular  part 
of  the  book,  observes  that  "  of  course  "  it  makes  no 
pretensions  to  originality,  but  is  simply  my  lucid 
summary  of  speculations  with  which  every  reader 
of  Darwin,  Spencer,  Huxley,  Romanes,  and  Drum- 
mond is  familiar  !  In  point  of  fact,  not  the  faintest 
suggestion  of  this  infancy  theory  can  be  found  in 
all  the  writings  of  Darwin,  Huxley,  and  Romanes. 
In  Spencer's  "Sociology,"  vol.  i.  p.  630,  it  is  briefly 


vi  Dedicatory  Epistle 

mentioned  with  approval  as  an  important  contri- 
bution originating  with  me  ;  and  in  Drummond's 
"Ascent  of  Man,"  which  is  really  built  upon  it, 
credit  is  cordially  given  me.i 

Indeed,  down  to  the  present  time,  I  have  been 
left  almost  in  exclusive  possession  of  that  area  of 
speculation  which  is  occupied  with  the  genesis  of 
Man  as  connected  with  that  prolongation  of  in- 
fancy which  first  began  to  become  conspicuous  in 
the  manlike  apes.  There  are  many  who  assent  to 
what  I  have  put  forth,  but  few  who  seem  inclined 
to  enter  that  difficult  field  on  the  marchland  be- 
tween biology,  psychology,  and  sociology.  Doubt- 
less this  is  because  the  attention  of  the  scientific 
world  has  for  forty  years  been  absorbed  in  the  more 
general  questions  concerning  the  competency  of 
natural  selection,  the  causes  of  variation,  the  agen- 
cies alleged  by  Lamarck,  and  in  these  latter  days 
Weismannism,  etc.  In  course  of  time,  however, 
the  more  special  problems  connected  with  man's 
genesis  will  surely  come  uppermost,  and  then  we 
may  hope  to  see  the  causes  of  the  lengthening  of 
infancy  investigated  by  thinkers  duly  conversant 
alike  with  psychology  and  embryology. 

Questions  of  priority  in  originating  new  theories 

1  The  Ascent  of  Man,  pp.  282-291 ;  cf.  Tyler,  The  Whence  and 
the  Whither  of  Man,  pp.  179,  217,  etc. 


Dedicatory  Epistle  vii 

may  not  greatly  interest  the  general  reader,  but 
you  and  I  feel  interested  in  preventing  any  mis- 
conception in  the  present  case  ;  and  it  was  thus 
that  the  careless  remark  of  the  friendly  reviewer 
led  me  to  insert  in  the  present  volume  the  short- 
hand report  of  some  autobiographical  remarks  on 
the  infancy  theory.  In  reading  the  proof-sheets  I 
have  noticed  that  the  book  contains  elsewhere  many 
allusions  to  personal  experiences.  This  feature, 
which  was  quite  unforeseen,  wiU.  not  fail  to  com- 
mend it  all  the  more  strongly  to  you,  my  ancient 
friend  and  comrade.  As  for  readers  in  general,  I 
may  best  conclude  in  the  words  of  old  Aaron  Kath- 
bone,  whose  book  entitled  "  The  Surveyor  "  was 
dated  "  from  my  lodging  at  the  house  of  M.  Roger 
Bvrgis,  against  Salisburie-house-gate,  in  the  Strand, 
this  sixt  of  Nouember,  1616."  This  wise  and  placid 
philosopher  saith :  "  To  perswade  the  courteous  were 
causelesse,  for  they  are  naturally  kind ;  and  to 
diswade  the  captious  were  bootless,  for  they  will 
not  be  diverted.  Let  the  first  make  true  vse  of 
these  my  labours,  and  they  shall  find  pleasure  and 
profit  therein ;  let  the  last  (if  they  like  not)  leave 
it,  and  it  shall  not  offend  them." 

Wherefore  let  me,  without  further  ado,  subscribe 
myself,  Ever  yours, 

JOHlSr  FISKE. 
Cambridge,  October  25,  1899. 


CONTENTS 

PAOK 

I.  A  Century  of  Science 1 

II.  The  Doctrine  of  Evolution  :    its  Scope  and 

Purport 39 

III.  Edward  Livingston  Youmans 64    ^ 

IV.  The  Part  played  by  Infancy  in  the  Evolu- 

tion OF  Man 100 

V.  The  Origins  of  Liberal  Thought  in  America  .  122 

VI.  Sir  Harry  Vane 154 

VII.  The  Arbitration  Treaty 166 

VIII.  Francis  Parkman 194 

IX.  Edward  Augustus  Freeman 265 

X.  Cambridge  as  Village  and  City 286 

XL  A  Harvest  of  Irish  Folk-Lore 319 

XII.  Guessing  at  Half  and  Multiplying  by  Two  .  333 

XIII.  Forty  Years  of  Bacon-Shakespeare  Folly    .  350 

XIV.  Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets      ....  405 

Note 461 

Inde3? 467 


A  CENTURY  OF  SCIENCE 


A  CENTURY  OF  SCIENCE  ^ 

In  the  course  of  the  year  1774  Dr.  Priestley 
found  that  by  heating  red  precipitate,  or  what  we 
now  caU  red  oxide  of  mercury,  a  gas  was  obtained, 
which  he  called  "  dephlogisticated  air,"  or,  in  other 
words,  air  deprived  of  phlogiston,  and  therefore 
incombustible.  This  incombustible  air  was  oxygen^ 
and  such  was  man's  first  introduction  to  the 
mighty  element  that  makes  one  fifth  of  the  atmo- 
sphere in  volume  and  eight  ninths  of  the  ocean  by 
weight,  besides  forming  one  haK  of  the  earth's 
solid  crust,  and  supporting  aU  fire  and  aU  life. 
I  know  of  nothing  which  can  reveal  to  us  with 
such  startling  vividness  the  extent  of  the  guLf 
which  the  human  mind  has  traversed  within  little 
more  than  a  hundred  years.  It  is  scarcely  possi- 
ble to  put  ourselves  back  into  the  frame  of  mind 

1  An  address  delivered  in  the  First  Unitarian  Church  of  Phila- 
delphia, May  13, 1896,  at  the  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth  an- 
niversary of  its  founding,  under  the  lead  of  the  illustrious  Dr. 
Priestley. 


2  A  Century  of  Science 

in  which  oxygen  was  unknown,  and  no  man  could 
tell  what  takes  place  when  a  log  of  wood  is  burned 
on  the  hearth.  The  language  employed  by  Dr. 
Priestley  carries  us  back  to  the  time  when  chem- 
istry was  beginning  to  emerge  from  alchemy.  It 
was  Newton's  contemporary,  Stahl,  who  invented 
the  doctrine  of  phlogiston  in  order  to  account  for 
combustion.  Stahl  supposed  that  all  combustible 
substances  contain  a  common  element,  or  fire  prin- 
ciple, which  he  called  phlogiston,  and  which  es- 
capes in  the  process  of  combustion.  Indeed,  the 
act  of  combustion  was  supposed  to  consist  in  the 
escape  of  phlogiston.  Whither  this  mysterious  fire 
principle  betook  itself,  after  severing  its  connection 
with  visible  matter,  was  not  too  clearly  indicated, 
but  of  course  it  was  to  that  limbo  far  larger  than 
purgatory,  the  oubliette  wherein  have  perished 
men's  unsuccessful  guesses  at  truth.  Stahl's  the- 
ory, however,  marked  a  great  advance  upon  what 
had  gone  before,  inasmuch  as  it  stated  the  case  in 
such  a  way  as  to  admit  of  direct  refutation.  Little 
use  was  made  of  the  balance  in  those  days,  but 
when  it  was  observed  that  zinc  and  lead  and  sun- 
dry other  substances  grow  heavier  in  burnmg,  it 
seemed  hardly  correct  to  suppose  that  anything 
had  escaped  from  these  substances.  To  this  objec- 
tion the  friends  of  the  fire  principle  replied  that 


A  Century  of  Science  3 

phlogiston  might  weigh  less  than  nothing,  or,  in 
other  words,  might  be  endowed  with  a  positive  at- 
tribute of  levity,  so  that  to  subtract  it  from  a 
body  would  increase  the  weight  of  the  body.  This 
was  a  truly  shifty  method  of  reasoning,  in  which 
your  phlogiston,  with  its  plus  sign  to-day  and  its 
minus  sign  to-morrow,  exhibited  a  skill  in  facing 
both  ways  like  that  of  an  American  candidate  for 
public  office. 

Into  the  structure  of  false  science  that  had  been 
reared  upon  these  misconceptions  Dr.  Priestley's 
discovery  of  oxygen  came  like  a  bombshell.  As  in 
so  many  other  like  cases,  the  discovery  was  destined 
to  come  at  about  that  time  ;  it  was  made  again 
three  years  afterward  by  the  Swedish  chemist 
Scheele,  without  knowing  what  Priestley  had  done. 
The  study  of  oxygen  soon  pointed  to  the  conclusion 
that,  whatever  may  escape  during  combustion,  oxy- 
gen is  always  united  with  the  burning  substance. 
Then  came  Lavoisier  with  his  balance,  and  proved 
that  whenever  a  thing  burns  it  combines  with 
Priestley's  oxygen,  and  the  weight  of  the  resulting 
product  is  equal  to  the  weight  of  the  substance 
burned  plus  the  weight  of  oxygen  abstracted  from 
the  air.  Thus  combustion  is  simply  union  with 
oxygen,  and  nothing  escapes.  No  room  was  left 
for  phlogiston.     Men's  thoughts  were    dephlogis- 


4  A  Century  of  Science 

ticated  from  that  time  forth.  The  balance  became 
the  ruling  instrmnent  of  chemistry.  One  further 
step  led  to  the  generalization  that  in  all  chemical 
changes  there  is  no  such  thing  as  increase  or  dim- 
inution, but  only  substitution,  and  uj^on  this  fun- 
damental truth  of  the  indestructibility  of  matter 
all  modern  chemistry  rests. 

When  we  look  at  the  stupendous  edifice  of 
science*  that  has  been  reared  upon  this  basis,  when 
we  consider  the  almost  limitless  sweep  of  inorganic 
and  organic  chemistry,  the  myriad  applications  to 
the  arts,  the  depth  to  which  we  have  been  enabled 
to  penetrate  into  the  innermost  proclivities  of  mat- 
ter, it  seems  almost  incredible  that  a  single  century 
can  have  witnessed  so  much  achievement.  We 
must  admit  the  fact,  but  our  minds  cannot  take  it 
in  ;  we  are  staggered  by  it.  One  thing  stands  out 
prominently,  as  we  contrast  this  rapid  and  coherent 
progress  with  the  barrenness  of  ancient  alchemy 
and  the  chaotic  fumbling  of  the  Stahl  period :  we 
see  the  importance  of  untrammelled  inquiry,  and  of 
sound  methods  of  investigation  which  admit  of  ver- 
ification at  every  step.  That  humble  instrument 
the  balance,  working  in  the  service  of  sovereign 
law,  has  been  a  beneficent  Jinni  unlocking  the  por- 
tals of  many  a  chamber  wherein  may  be  heard  the 
secret  harmonies  of  the  world. 


A  Century  of  Science  6 

It  is  not  only  in  chemistry,  however,  that  the 
marvellous  advance  of  science  has  been  exhibited. 
In  all  directions  the  quantity  of  achievement  has 
been  so  marked  that  it  is  worth  our  while  to  take 
a  brief  general  survey  of  the  whole,  to  see  if  haply 
we  may  seize  upon  the  fundamental  characteristics 
of  this  great  progress.  In  the  first  place,  a  glance 
at  astronomy  will  show  us  how  much  our  know- 
ledge of  the  world  has  enlarged  in  space  since  the 
day  when  Priestley  set  free  his  dephlogisticated 
air. 

The  known  solar  system  then  consisted  of  sun, 
moon,  earth,  and  the  five  planets  visible  to  the 
naked  eye.  Since  the  days  of  the  Chaldsean  shep- 
herds there  had  been  no  additions  except  the 
moons  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn.  Herschel's  telescope 
was  to  win  its  first  triumph  in  the  detection  of 
Uranus  in  1781.  The  Newtonian  theory,  promul- 
gated in  1687,  had  come  to  be  generally  accepted, 
but  there  were  difficulties  remaining,  connected 
with  the  planetary  perturbations  and  the  inequali- 
ties in  the  moon's  motion,  which  the  glorious  la- 
bours of  Lagrange  and  Laplace  were  presently  to 
explain  and  remove,  —  labours  which  bore  their  f  uU 
fruition  two  generations  later,  in  1845,  when  the 
discovery  of  the  planet  Neptune,  by  purely  mathe- 
matical reasoning  from  the  observed  effects  of  its 


6  A  Century  of  Science 

gravitation,  furnished  for  the  Newtonian  theory 
the  grandest  confirmation  known  in  the  whole  his- 
tory of  science.  In  Priestley's  time,  sidereal  as- 
tronomy was  little  more  than  the  cataloguing  of 
such  stars  and  nebulae  as  could  be  seen  with  the 
telescopes  then  at  conunand.  Sixty  years  after  the 
discovery  of  oxygen  the  distance  of  no  star  had 
been  measured.  In  1836,  Auguste  Comte  assured 
his  readers  that  such  a  feat  was  impossible,  that 
the  Newtonian  theory  could  never  be  proved  to  ex- 
tend through  the  interstellar  spaces,  and  that  the 
matter  of  which  stars  are  composed  may  be  en- 
tirely different  in  its  properties  from  the  matter 
with  which  we  are  familiar.  Within  three  years 
the  first  part  of  this  prophecy  was  disproved  when 
Bessel  measured  the  distance  of  the  star  61  Cygni ; 
since  then  the  study  of  the  movements  of  double 
and  multiple  stars  has  shown  them  conforming 
to  Newton's  law  ;  and  as  for  the  matter  of  which 
they  are  composed,  we  are  introduced  to  a  chapter 
in  science  which  even  the  boldest  speculator  of 
half  a  century  ago  would  have  derided  as  a  base- 
less dream.  The  discovery  of  spectrum  analysis 
and  the  invention  of  the  spectroscope,  completed 
in  1861  by  Kirchhoff  and  Bunsen,  have  supplied 
data  for  the  creation  of  a  stellar  chemistry ;  show- 
ing us,  for  example,  hydrogen  in  Sirius  and  the 


A  Century  of  Science  7 

nebula  of  Orion,  sodium  and  potassium,  calcium 
and  iron,  in  the  sun  ;  demonstrating  the  gaseous 
character  of  nebidse  ;*  and  revealing  chemical  ele- 
ments hitherto  unknown,  such  as  helium,  a  mineral 
first  detected  in  the  sun's  atmosphere,  and  after- 
ward found  in  Norway.  A  still  more  wonderful 
result  of  spectrum  analysis  is  our  ability  to  mea- 
sure the  motion  of  a  star  through  a  slight  shifting 
in  the  wave-lengths  of  the  light  which  it  emits. 
In  this  way  we  can  measure,  in  the  absence  of  all 
parallax,  the  direct  approach  or  recession  of  a  star ; 
and  in  somewhat  similar  wise  has  been  discovered 
the  cause  of  the  long-observed  variations  of  bril- 
liancy in  Algol.  That  star,  which  is  about  the 
size  of  our  sun,  has  a  dark  companion  not  much 
smaller,  and  the  twain  are  moving  around  a  third 
body,  also  dark  :  the  result  is  an  irregular  series 
of  eclipses  of  Algol,  and  the  gravitative  forces  ex- 
erted by  the  two  invisible  stars  are  estimated 
through  their  effects  upon  the  spectrum  of  the 
bright  star.  In  no  department  of  science  has  a 
region  of  inference  been  reached  more  remote  than 
this.  From  such  a  flight  one  may  come  back 
gently  to  more  familiar  regions  while  remarking 
upon  the  manifold  results  that  have  begun  to  be 
attained  from  the  application  of  a  sensitive  photo- 
graph plate  to  the  telescope  in  place  of  the  human 


8  A  Century  of  Science 

eye.  It  may  suffice  to  observe  that  we  thus  catch 
the  fleeting  aspects  of  sun-spots  and  preserve  them 
for  study ;  we  detect  the  f eebfe  self-himinosity  still 
left  in  such  a  slowly  cooling  planet  as  Jupiter ; 
and  since  the  metallic  plate  does  not  quickly 
weary,  like  the  human  retina,  the  cumulative  ef- 
fects of  its  long  exposure  reveal  the  existence  of 
countless  stars  and  nebulae  too  remote  to  be  other- 
wise reached  by  any  visual  process.  By  such 
photographic  methods  George  Darwin  has  caught 
an  equatorial  ring  in  the  act  of  detaclnnent  from 
its  parent  nebula,  and  the  successive  phases  of  the 
slow  process  may  be  watched  and  recorded  by  gen- 
erations of  mortals  yet  to  come. 

To  appreciate  the  philosophic  bearings  of  this 
vast  enlargement  of  the  mental  horizon,  let  us  re- 
call just  what  happened  when  Newton  first  took 
the  leap  from  earth  into  the  celestial  spaces  by 
establishing  a  law  of  physics  to  which  moon  and 
apple  alike  conform.  It  was  the  first  step,  and 
a  very  long  one,  toward  proving  that  the  terrestrial 
and  celestial  worlds  are  dynamically  akin,  that  the 
same  kind  of  order  prevails  through  both  alike, 
that  both  are  parts  of  one  cosmic  whole.  So  late 
as  Kepler's  time,  it  was  possible  to  argue  that  the 
planets  are  propelled  in  their  elliptic  orbits  by 
forces  quite  unlike  any  that  are  disclosed  by  purely 


A  Century  of  Science  9 

terrestrial  experience,  and  therefore  perhaps  inac- 
cessible to  any  rational  interpretation.  Such  im- 
aginary lines  of  demarcation  between  earth  and 
heavens  were  forever  swept  away  by  Newton,  and 
the  recent  work  of  spectrum  analysis  simply  com- 
pletes the  demonstration  that  the  remotest  bodies 
which  the  photographic  telescope  can  disclose  are 
truly  part  and  parcel  of  the  dynamic  world  in 
which  we  live. 

All  this  enlargement  of  the  mental  horizon,  from 
Newton  to  Kirchhoff,  had  reference  to  space.  The 
nineteenth  century  has  witnessed  an  equaQy  not- 
able enlargement  with  reference  to  time.  The  be- 
ginnings of  scientific  geology  were  much  later  than 
those  of  astronomy.  The  phenomena  were  less 
striking  and  far  more  complicated  ;  it  took  longer, 
therefore,  to  bring  men's  minds  to  bear  upon  them. 
Antagonism  on  the  part  of  theologians  was  also 
slower  in  dying  out.  The  complaint  against  New- 
ton, that  he  substituted  Blind  Gravitation  for  an 
Intelligent  Deity,  was  nothing  compared  to  the 
abuse  that  was  afterwards  lavished  upon  geologists 
for  disturbing  the  accepted  BibKcal  chronology. 
At  the  time  when  Priestley  discovered  oxygen, 
educated  men  were  still  to  be  found  who  could 
maintain  with  a  sober  face  that  fossils  had  been 
created  already  dead  and  petrified,  just  for  the  fun 


10  A  Century  of  Science 

of  the  thing.  The  writings  of  Buffon  were  prepar- 
ing men's  minds  for  the  belief  that  the  earth's  crust 
has  witnessed  many  and  important  changes,  but 
there  could  be  no  scientific  geology  until  further 
progress  was  made  in  physics  and  chemistry.  It 
was  only  in  1763  that  Joseph  Black  discovered 
latent  heat,  and  thus  gave  us  a  clue  to  what  hap- 
pens when  water  freezes  and  melts,  or  when  it  is 
turned  into  steam.  It  was  in  1786  that  the  pub- 
lication of  James  Hutton's  "  Theory  of  the  Earth  " 
ushered  in  the  great  battle  between  Neptunians 
and  Plutonists  which  prepared  the  way  for  scien- 
tific geology.  When  the  new  science  won  its  first 
great  triumph  with  Lyell  in  1830,  the  philosophic 
purport  of  the  event  was  the  same  that  was  being 
proclaimed  by  the  progress  of  astronomy.  Newton 
proved  that  the  forces  which  keep  the  planets  in 
their  orbits  are  not  strange  or  supernatural  forces, 
but  just  such  as  we  see  in  operation  upon  this 
earth  every  moment  of  our  lives.  Geologists  be- 
fore Lyell  had  been  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
general  aspect  of  the  earth's  surface  with  which 
we  are  familiar  is  by  no  means  its  primitive  or  its 
permanent  aspect,  but  that  there  has  been  a  suc- 
cession of  ages,  in  which  the  relations  of  land  and 
water,  of  moimtain  and  plain,  have  varied  to  a 
very  considerable  extent ;  in  which  soils  and  cli- 


A  Century  of  Science  11 

mates  have  undergone  most  complicated  vicissi- 
tudes ;  and  in  which  the  earth's  vegetable  products 
and  its  animal  populations  have  again  and  again 
assumed  new  forms,  while  the  old  forms  have 
passed  away.  In  order  to  account  for  such  whole- 
sale changes,  geologists  were  at  first  disposed  to 
imagine  violent  catastrophes  brought  about  by 
strange  agencies,  —  agencies  which  were  perhaps 
not  exactly  supernatural,  but  were  in  some  vague, 
unspecified  way  different  from  those  which  are 
now  at  work  in  the  visible  and  familiar  order  of 
nature.  But  Lyell  proved  that  the  very  same 
kind  of  physical  processes  which  are  now  going  on 
about  us  would  suffice,  during  a  long  period  of 
time,  to  produce  the  changes  in  the  inorganic  world 
which  distinguish  one  geological  period  from  an- 
other. Here,  in  Lyell' s  geological  investigations, 
there  was  for  the  first  time  due  attention  paid 
to  the  immense  importance  of  the  prolonged  and 
cumulative  action  of  slight  and  unobtrusive  causes. 
The  continual  dropping  that  wears  away  stones 
might  have  served  as  a  text  for  the  whole  series  of 
beautiful  researches  of  which  he  first  summed  up 
the  results  in  1830.  As  astronomy  was  steadily 
advancing  toward  the  proof  that  in  the  abysses 
of  space  the  physical  forces  at  work  are  the  same 
as  our  terrestrial  forces,  so  geology,  in  carrying  us 


12  A  Century  of  Science 

back  to  enormously  remote  periods  of  time,  began 
to  teach  that  the  forces  at  work  have  all  along 
been  the  same  forces  that  are  operative  now.  Of 
course,  in  that  early  stage  when  the  earth's  crust 
was  in  process  of  formation,  when  the  temperature 
was  excessively  high,  there  were  phenomena  here 
such  as  can  no  longer  be  witnessed,  but  for  which 
we  must  look  to  big  planets  like  Jupiter  ;  in  that 
intensely  hot  atmosphere  violent  disturbances  oc- 
cur, and  chemical  elements  are  dissociated  which  we 
are  accustomed  to  find  in  close  combination  here. 
But  ever  since  our  earth  cooled  to  a  point  at  which 
its  solid  crust  acquired  stability,  since  the  earliest 
moUusks  and  vertebrates  began  to  swim  in  the 
seas  and  worms  to  crawl  in  the  damp  ground,  if  at 
almost  any  time  we  could  have  come  here  on  a 
visit,  we  should  doubtless  have  found  things  going 
on  at  measured  pace  very  much  as  at  present,  — 
here  and  there  earthquake  and  avalanche,  fire  and 
flood,  but  generally  rain  falling,  sunshine  quick- 
ening, herbage  sprouting,  creatures  of  some  sort 
browsing,  all  as  quiet  and  peaceful  as  a  daisied 
field  in  June,  without  the  slightest  visible  presage 
of  the  continuous  series  of  minute  secular  changes 
that  were  gradually  to  transform  a  Carboniferous 
world  into  what  was  by  and  by  to  be  a  Jurassic 
world,  and  that  again  into  what  was  after  a  while 


A  Century  of  Science  13 

to  be  an  Eocene  world,  and  so  on,  until  the  aspect 
of  the  world  that  we  know  to-day  should  noise- 
lessly steal  upon  us. 

When  once  the  truth  of  Lyell's  conclusions  be- 
gan to  be  distinctly  reahzed,  their  influence  upon 
men's  habits  of  thought  and  upon  the  drift  of 
philosophic  speculation  was  profound.  The  con- 
ception of  Evolution  was  irresistibly  foiled  upon 
men's  attention.  It  was  proved  beyond  question 
that  the  world  was  not  created  in  the  form  in  which 
we  find  it  to-day,  but  has  gone  through  many 
phases,  of  which  the  later  are  very  different  from 
the  earlier ;  and  it  was  shown  that,  so  far  as  the 
inorganic  world  is  concerned,  the  changes  can  be 
much  more  satisfactorily  explained  by  a  reference 
to  the  ceaseless,  all-pervading  activity  of  gentle,  un- 
obtrusive causes  such  as  we  know  than  by  an  ap- 
peal to  imaginary  catastrophes  such  as  we  have  no 
means  of  verifying.  It  began  to  appear,  also,  that 
the  facts  which  form  the  subject-matter  of  different 
departments  of  science  are  not  detached  and  inde- 
pendent groups  of  facts,  but  that  all  are  intimately 
related  one  with  another,  and  that  aU  may  be 
brought  under  contribution  in  illustrating  the  his- 
tory of  cosmic  events.  It  was  a  sense  of  this  inter- 
dependence of  different  departments  that  led  Au- 
guste  Comte  to  write  his  "  Philosophie  Positive,"  the 


14  A  Century  of  Science 

first  volume  of  which  appeared  in  1830,  in  which 
he  sought  to  point  out  the  methods  which  each 
science  has  at  command  for  discovering  truth,  and 
the  manner  in  which  each  might  be  made  to  con- 
tribute toward  a  sound  body  of  philosophic  doctrine. 
The  attempt  had  a  charm  and  a  stimulus  for  many 
minds,  but  failed  by  being  enlisted  in  the  service  of 
sundry  sociological  vagaries  upon  which  the  author's 
mind  was  completely  wrecked.  "  Positivism,"  from 
being  the  name  of  a  potent  scientific  method,  be- 
came the  name  of  one  more  among  the  myriad 
ways  of  having  a  church  and  regulating  the  details 
of  life. 

While  the  ponderous  mechanical  intellect  of 
Comte  was  striving  to  elicit  the  truth  from  themes 
beyond  its  grasp,  one  of  the  world's  supreme  poets 
had  already  discerned  some  of  the  deeper  aspects 
of  science  presently  to  be  set  forth.  By  tempera- 
ment and  by  training,  Goethe  was  one  of  the  first 
among  evolutionists.  The  belief  in  an  evolution  of 
higher  from  lower  organisms  could  not  fail  to  be 
strongly  suggested  to  a  mind  like  his  as  soon  as 
the  classification  of  plants  and  animals  had  begun 
to  be  conducted  upon  scientific  principles.  It  is 
not  for  nothing  that  a  table  of  classes,  orders,  fam- 
ilies, genera,  and  species,  when  graphically  laid 
out,  resembles  a  family  tree.     It  was  not  long  after 


A  Century  of  Science  15 

Linnaeus  that  believers  in  some  sort  of  a  develop- 
ment theory,  often  fantastic  enough,  began  to  be 
met  with.  The  facts  of  morphology  gave  further 
suggestions  in  the  same  direction.  Such  facts  were 
first  generalized  on  a  grand  scale  by  Goethe  in  his 
beautiful  little  essay  on  "  The  Metamorphoses  of 
Plants, "written  in  1790,  and  his  "  Introduction  to 
Morphology,"  written  in  1795,  but  not  published 
until  1807.  In  these  profound  treatises,  which  were 
too  far  in  advance  of  their  age  to  exert  much  influ- 
ence at  first,  Goethe  laid  the  philosophic  foundations 
of  comparative  anatomy  in  both  vegetal  and  animal 
worlds.  The  conceptions  of  metamorphosis  and  of 
homology,  which  were  thus  brought  forward,  tended 
powerfully  toward  a  recognition  of  the  process  of 
evolution.  It  was  shown  that  what  under  some 
circumstances  grows  into  a  stem  with  a  whorl  of 
leaves,  under  other  circumstances  grows  into  a 
flower ;  it  was  shown  that  in  the  general  scheme 
of  the  vertebrate  skeleton  a  pectoral  fin,  a  fore  leg, 
and  a  wing  occupy  the  same  positions  :  thus  was 
strongly  suggested  the  idea  that  what  imder  some 
circumstances  developed  into  a  fin  might  under 
other  circumstances  develop  into  a  leg  or  a  wing. 
The  revelations  of  palaeontology,  showing  various 
extinct  adult  forms,  with  corresponding  organs 
in  various    degrees   of   development,  went   far   to 


16  A  Century  of  Science 

strengthen  this  suggestion,  until  an  unanswerable 
argument  was  reached  with  the  study  of  rudimen- 
tary organs,  which  have  no  meaning  except  as  rem- 
nants of  a  vanished  past  during  which  the  organism 
has  been  changing.  The  study  of  comparative 
embryology  pointed  in  the  same  direction ;  for  it 
was  soon  observed  that  the  embryos  and  larvae  of 
the  higher  forms  of  each  group  of  animals  pass,  "  in 
the  course  of  their  development,  through  a  series  of 
stages  in  which  they  more  or  less  completely  resem- 
ble the  lower  forms  of  the  group."  ^ 

Before  the  full  significance  of  such  facts  of  em- 
bryology and  morphology  could  be  felt,  it  was 
necessary  that  the  work  of  classification  should  be 
carried  far  beyond  the  point  at  which  it  had  been 
left  by  Linnaeus.  In  mapping  out  the  relation- 
ships in  the  animal  kingdom,  the  great  Swedish 
naturalist  had  relied  less  than  his  predecessors 
upon  external  or  superficial  characteristics;  the 
time  was  arriving  when  classification  should  be 
based  upon  a  thorough  study  of  internal  structure, 
and  this  was  done  by  a  noble  company  of  French 
anatomists,  among  whom  Cuvier  was  chief.  It 
was  about  1817  that  Cuvier 's  gigantic  work 
reached  its  climax  in  bringing  palaeontology  into 
alliance  with  systematic  zoology,  and  effecting  that 

^  Balfour,  Comparative  Embryology,  i.  2. 


A  Century  of  Science  17 

grand  classification  of  animals  in  space  and  time 
which  at  once  cast  into  the  shade  all  that  had  gone 
before  it.  During  the  past  fifty  years  there  have 
been  great  changes  made  in  Cuvier's  classification, 
especially  in  the  case  of  the  lower  forms  of  animal 
life.  His  class  of  Madiata  has  been  broken  up, 
other  divisions  in  his  invertebrate  world  have  been 
modified  beyond  recognition,  his  vertebrate  scheme 
has  been  overhauled  in  many  quarters,  his  attempt 
to  erect  a  distinct  order  for  Man  has  been  over- 
thrown. Among  the  great  anatomists  concerned 
in  this  work  the  greatest  name  is  that  of  Huxley. 
The  classification  most  generally  adopted  to-day  is 
Huxley's,  but  it  is  rather  a  modification  of  Cuvier's 
than  a  new  development.  So  enduring  has  been 
the  work  of  the  great  Frenchman. 

With  Cuvier  the  analysis  of  the  animal  organ- 
ism made  some  progress  in  such  wise  that  anato- 
mists began  to  concentrate  their  attention  upon 
the  study  of  the  development  and  characteristic 
functions  of  organs.  Philosophically,  this  was  a 
long  step  in  advance,  but  a  still  longer  one  was 
taken  at  about  the  same  time  by  that  astonishing 
youth  whose  career  has  no  parallel  in  the  history 
of  science.  When  Xavier  Bichat  died  in  1802,  in 
his  thirty-first  year,  he  left  behind  him  a  treatise 
on  comparative  anatomy  in  which  the  subject  was 


18  A  Century  of  Science 

worked  up  from  the  study  of  the  tissues  and  their 
properties.  The  path  thus  broken  by  Bicl\at  led 
to  the  cell  doctrine  of  Schleiden  and  Schwann,  ma- 
tured about  1840,  which  remains,  with  some  modi- 
fications, the  basis  of  modern  biology.  The  ad- 
vance along  these  lines  contributed  signally  to  the 
advancement  of  embryology,  which  reached  a  start- 
ling height  in  1829  with  the  publication  of  Baer's 
memorable  treatise,  in  which  the  development  of 
an  ovum  is  shown  to  consist  in  a  change  from  ho- 
mogeneity to  heterogeneity  through  successive  dif- 
ferentiations. But  while  Baer  thus  arrived  at  the 
very  threshold  of  the  law  of  evolution,  he  was  not 
in  the  true  sense  an  evolutionist ;  he  had  nothing 
to  say  to  phylogenetic  evolution,  or  the  derivation  of 
the  higher  forms  of  life  from  lower  forms  through 
physical  descent  with  modifications.  Just  so  with 
Cuvier.  When  he  effected  his  grand  classification, 
he  prepared  the  way  most  thoroughly  for  a  general 
theory  of  evolution,  but  he  always  resisted  any 
such  inference  from  his  work.  He  was  building 
better  than  he  knew. 

The  hesitancy  of  such  men  as  Cuvier  and  Baer 
was  no  doubt  due  partly  to  the  apparent  absence 
of  any  true  cause  for  physical  modifications  in  spe- 
cies, partly  to  the  completeness  with  which  their 
own  great  work  absorbed  their  minds.     Often  in 


A  Century  of  Science  19 

the  history  of  science  we  witness  the  spectacle  of 
a  brilliant  discoverer  travelling  in  triumph  along 
some  new  path,  but  stopping  just  short  of  the  goal 
which  subsequent  exploration  has  revealed.  There 
it  stands  looming  up  before  his  face,  but  he  is 
blind  to  its  presence  through  the  excess  of  light 
which  he  has  already  taken  in.  The  intellectual 
effort  already  put  forth  has  left  no  surplus  for  any 
further  sweep  of  comprehension,  so  that  further 
advance  requires  a  fresher  mind  and  a  new  start 
with  faculties  unjaded  and  unwarped.  To  dis- 
cover a  great  truth  usually  requires  a  succession  of 
thinkers.  Among  the  eminent  anatomists  who  in 
the  earlier  part  of  our  century  were  occupied  with 
the  classification  of  animals,  there  were  some  who 
found  themselves  compelled  to  believe  in  phylo- 
genetic  evolution,  although  they  could  frame  no  sat- 
isfactory theory  to  account  for  it.  The  weight  of 
evidence  was  already  in  favour  of  such  evolution, 
and  these  men  could  not  fail  to  see  it.  Foremost 
among  them  was  Jean  Baptiste  Lamarck,  whose 
work  was  of  supreme  importance.  His  views  were 
stated  in  1809  in  his  "Philosophic  Zoologique," 
and  further  illustrated  in  1815,  in  his  voluminous 
treatise  on  invertebrate  animals.  Lamarck  en- 
tirely rejected  the  notion  of  special  creations,  and 
he  pointed  out  some  of  the  important  factors  in  evo- 


20  A  Century  of  Science 

liition,  especially  the  law  that  organs  and  faculties 
tend  to  increase  with  exercise,  and  to  diminish  with 
disuse.  His  weakest  point  was  the  disposition  to 
imagine  some  inherent  and  ubiquitous  tendency  to- 
ward evolution,  whereas  a  closer  study  of  nature  has 
taught  us  that  evolution  occurs  only  where  there 
is  a  concurrence  of  favourable  conditions.  Among 
others  who  maintained  some  theory  of  evolution 
were  the  two  Geoffroy  Saint-Hilaires,  father  and 
son,  and  the  two  great  botanists,  Naudin  in  France 
and  Hooker  in  England.  In  1852  the  case  of  evo- 
lution as  against  special  creations  was  argued  by 
Herbert  Spencer  with  convincing  force,  and  in 
1855  appeared  "  The  Principles  of  Psychology," 
by  the  same  author,  a  book  which  is  from  begin- 
ning to  end  an  elaborate  illustration  of  the  process 
of  evolution,  and  is  divided  from  everything  that 
came  before  it  by  a  gulf  as  wide  as  that  which 
divides  the  Copernican  astronomy  from  the  Ptole- 
maic. 

The  followers  of  Cuvier  regarded  the  methods 
and  results  of  these  evolutionists  with  strong  dis- 
approval. In  the  excess  of  such  a  feeling,  they 
even  went  so  far  as  to  condemn  all  philosophic 
thinking  on  subjects  within  the  scope  of  natural 
history  as  visionary  and  unscientific.  Why  seek 
for  any  especial  significance  in  the  fact  that  every 


A  Century  of  Science  21 

spider  and  every  lobster  is  made  up  of  just  twenty 
segments  ?  Is  it  not  enough  to  know  the  fact  ? 
Children  must  not  ask  too  many  questions.  It  is 
the  business  of  science  to  gather  facts,  not  to  seek 
for  hidden  implications.  Such  was  the  mental  at- 
titude into  which  men  of  science  were  quite  com- 
monly driven,  between  1830  and  1860,  by  their  de- 
sire to  blink  the  question  of  evolution.  A  feeling 
grew  up  that  the  true  glory  of  a  scientific  career  was 
to  detect  for  the  two  hundredth  time  an  asteroid, 
or  to  stick  a  pin  through  a  beetle  with  a  label  at- 
tached bearing  your  own  latinized  name,  Browni, 
or  Jonesii,  or  Mohinsoniense.  This  feeling  was 
especially  strong  in  France,  and  was  not  confined 
to  physical  science.  It  was  exhibited  a  few  years 
later  in  the  election  of  some  Swedish  or  Norwegian 
naturalist  (whose  name  I  forget)  to  the  French 
Academy  of  Science  instead  of  Charles  Darwin : 
the  former  had  described  some  new  kind  of  fly, 
the  latter  was  only  a  theorizer!  The  study  of 
origins  in  particular  was  to  be  frowned  upon.  In 
1863  the  Linguistic  Society  of  Paris  passed  a  by- 
law that  no  communications  bearing  upon  the  ori- 
gin of  language  would  be  received.  In  the  same 
mood.  Sir  Henry  Maine's  treatise  on  "Ancient  Law  " 
was  condemned  at  a  leading  American  university : 
it  was  enough  for  us  to  know  our  own  laws ;  those 


22  A  Century  of  Science 

of  India  might  interest  British  students  who  might 
have  occasion  to  go  there,  but  not  Americans. 
Such  crude  notions,  utterly  hostile  to  the  spirit  of 
science,  were  unduly  favoured  fifty  years  ago  by  the 
persistent  unwillingness  to  submit  the  phenomena 
of  organic  nature  to  the  kind  of  scientific  expla- 
nation which  facts  from  all  quarters  were  urging 
upon  us. 

During  the  period  from  1830  to  1860,  the  factor 
in  evolution  which  had  hitherto  escaped  detection 
was  gradually  laid  hold  of  and  elaborately  studied 
by  Charles  Darwin.  In  the  nature  of  his  specula- 
tions, and  the  occasion  that  called  them  forth,  he 
was  a  true  disciple  of  Lyell.  The  work  of  that 
great  geologist  led  directly  up  to  Darwinism.  As 
long  as  it  was  supposed  that  each  geologic  period 
was  separated  from  the  periods  before  and  after 
it  by  Titanic  convulsions  which  revolutionized  the 
face  of  the  globe,  it  was  possible  for  men  to  ac- 
quiesce in  the  supposition  that  these  convulsions 
wrought  an  abrupt  and  a  wholesale  destruction  of 
organic  life,  and  that  the  lost  forms  were  replaced 
by  an  equally  abrupt  and  wholesale  supernatural 
creation  of  new  forms  at  the  beginning  of  each 
new  period.  But,  as  people  ceased  to  believe  in 
the  convulsions,  such  an  explanation  began  to  seem 
improbable,  and  it  was  completely  discredited  by  the 


A  Century  of  Science  23 

fact  that  many  kinds  of  plants  and  animals  have 
persisted  with  little  or  no  change  during  several 
successive  periods,  side  by  side  with  other  kinds 
in  which  there  have  been  extensive  variation  and 
extinction. 

In  connection  with  this  a  fact  of  great  signifi- 
cance was  elicited.  Between  the  fauna  and  flora 
of  successive  periods  in  the  same  geographical  re- 
gion there  is  apt  to  be  a  manifest  family  likeness, 
indicating  that  the  later  are  connected  with  the 
earlier  through  the  bonds  of  physical  descent.  It 
was  a  case  of  this  sort  that  attracted  Darwin's 
attention  in  1835.  The  plants  and  animals  of  the 
Galapagos  Islands  are  either  descended,  with  spe- 
cific modifications,  from  those  of  the  mainland  of 
Ecuador,  or  else  there  must  have  been  an  enor- 
mous number  of  special  creations.  The  case  is  one 
which  at  a  glance  presents  the  notion  of  special 
creations  in  an  absurd  light.  But  what  could 
have  caused  the  modification  ?  What  was  wanted 
was,  to  be  able  to  point  to  some  agency,  similar  to 
agencies  now  in  operation,  and  therefore  intelligi- 
ble, which  could  be  proved  to  be  capable  of  mak- 
ing specific  changes  in  plants  and  animals.  Dar- 
win's solution  of  the  problem  was  so  beautiful,  it 
seems  now  so  natural  and  inevitable,  that  we  may 
be   in  danger  of  forgetting  how  complicated  and 


24  A  Century  of  Science 

abstruse  the  problem  really  was.  Starting  from 
the  known  experiences  of  breeders  of  domestic  ani- 
mals and  cultivated  plants,  and  duly  considering 
the  remarkable  and  sometimes  astonishing  changes 
that  are  wrought  by  simple  selection,  the  problem 
was  to  detect  among  the  multifarious  phenomena 
of  organic  nature  any  agency  capable  of  accom- 
plishing what  man  thus  accomplishes  by  selection. 
In  detecting  the  agency  of  natural  selection,  work- 
ing perpetually  through  the  preservation  of  fa- 
voured individuals  and  races  in  the  struggle  for 
existence,  Darwin  found  the  true  cause  for  which 
men  were  waiting.  With  infinite  patience  and  cau- 
tion, he  applied  his  method  of  explanation  to  one 
group  of  organic  phenomena  after  another,  meet- 
ing in  every  quarter  with  fresh  and  often  unex- 
pected verification.  After  more  than  twenty  years, 
a  singular  circumstance  led  him  to  publish  an  ac- 
count of  his  researches.  The  same  group  of  facts 
had  set  a  younger  naturalist  to  work  upon  the 
same  problem,  and  a  similar  process  of  thought 
had  led  to  the  same  solution.  Without  knowing 
what  Darwin  had  done,  Alfred  Russel  Wallace 
made  the  same  discovery,  and  sent  from  the  East 
Indies,  in  1858,  his  statement  of  it  to  Darwin  as 
to  the  man  whose  judgment  upon  it  he  should  most 
highly  prize.     This  made  publication  necessary  for 


A  Century  of  Science  25 

Darwin.  The  vast  treasures  of  theory  and  ex- 
ample which  he  had  accumulated  were  given  to 
the  world,  the  notion  of  special  creations  was  ex- 
ploded, and  the  facts  of  phylogenetic  evolution  won 
general  acceptance. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  great  achievement, 
men  in  every  department  of  science  began  to  work 
in  a  more  philosophical  spirit.  Naturalists,  aban- 
doning the  mood  of  the  stamp  collectors,  saw  in 
every  nook  and  corner  some  fresh  illustration  of 
Darwin's  views.  One  serious  obstacle  to  any  gen- 
eral statement  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  was 
removed.  It  was  in  1861  that  Herbert  Spencer 
began  to  publish  such  a  general  systematic  state- 
ment. His  point  of  departure  was  the  point 
reached  by  Baer  in  1829,  the  change  from  homo- 
geneity to  heterogeneity.  The  theory  of  evolution 
had  already  received  in  Spencer's  hands  a  far  more 
complete  and  philosophical  treatment  than  ever 
before,  when  the  discovery  of  natural  selection 
came  to  supply  the  one  feature  which  it  lacked. 
Spencer's  thought  is  often  more  profound  than 
Darwin's,  but  he  would  be  the  first  to  admit  the 
indispensableness  of  natural  selection  to  the  suc- 
cessful working-out  of  his  own  theory. 

The  work  of  Spencer  is  beyond  precedent  for 
comprehensiveness  and  depth.    He  began  by  show- 


26  A  Century  of  Science 

ing  that  as  a  generalization  of  embryology  Baer's 
law  needs  important  emendations,  and  he  went  on  to 
prove  that,  as  thus  rectified,  the  law  of  the  develop- 
ment of  an  ovum  is  the  law  which  covers  the  evolu- 
tion of  our  planetary  system,  and  of  life  upon  the 
earth's  surface  in  all  its  myriad  manifestations. 
In  Spencer's  hands,  the  time-honoured  Nebular 
Theory  propounded  by  Immanuel  Kant  in  1755, 
the  earliest  of  all  scientific  theories  of  evolution, 
took  on  fresh  life  and  meaning  ;  and  at  the  same 
time  the  theories  of  Lamarck  and  Darwin  as  to 
organic  evolution  were  worked  up  along  with  his 
own  profound  generalization  of  the  evolution  of 
mind  into  one  coherent  and  majestic  whole.  Man- 
kind have  reason  to  be  grateful  that  the  promise 
of  that  daring  prospectus  which  so  charmed  and 
dazzled  us  in  1860  is  at  last  fulfilled;  that  after 
six-and- thirty  years,  despite  all  obstacles  and  dis- 
couragements, the  Master's  work  is  virtually  done. 
Such  a  synthesis  could  not  have  been  achieved, 
nor  even  attempted,  without  the  extraordinary 
expansion  of  molecular  physics  that  marked  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  When  Priest- 
ley discovered  oxygen,  the  undulatory  theory  of 
light,  the  basis  of  all  modern  physics,  had  not  been 
established.  It  had  indeed  been  propounded  as 
long  ago  as  1678  by  the  illustrious  Christian  Huy- 


A  Century  of  Science  27 

ghens,  whom  we  should  also  remember  as  the  dis- 
coverer of  Saturn's  rings  and  the  inventor  of  the 
pendulum  clock.  But  Huyghens  was  in  advance 
of  his  age,  and  the  overshadowing  authority  of 
Newton,  who  maintained  a  rival  hypothesis,  pre- 
vented due  attention  being  paid  to  the  undulatory 
theory  until  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
when  it  was  again  taken  up  and  demonstrated  by 
Fresnel  and  Thomas  Young.  About  the  same 
time,  our  fellow  countryman,  Count  Kumford,  was 
taking  the  lead  in  that  series  of  researches  which 
culminated  in  the  discovery  of  the  mechanical 
equivalent  of  heat  by  Dr.  Joule  in  1843.  One  of 
Priestley's  earliest  books,  the  one  which  made  him 
a  doctor  of  laws  and  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society, 
was  a  treatise  on  electricity,  published  in  1767. 
It  was  a  long  step  from  that  book  to  the  one  in 
which  the  Danish  physicist  Oersted,  in  1820,  de- 
monstrated the  intimate  correlation  between  elec- 
tricity and  magnetism,  thus  preparing  the  way  for 
Faraday's  great  discovery  of  magneto-electric  in- 
duction in  1831.  By  the  middle  of  our  century 
the  work  in  these  various  departments  of  physics 
had  led  to  the  detection  of  the  deepest  truth  in 
science,  —  the  law  of  correlation  and  conservation, 
which  we  owe  chiefly  to  Helmholtz,  Mayer,  and 
Grove.     It  was  proved  that  light  and  heat,  and 


28  A  Century  of  Science 

the  manifestations  of  force  wliich  we  group  to- 
gether under  the  name  of  electricity,  are  various 
modes  of  undulatory  motion  transformable  one 
into  another ;  and  that,  in  the  operations  of  na- 
ture, energy  is  never  annihilated,  but  only  changed 
from  one  form  into  another.  This  generalization 
includes  the  indestructibility  of  matter,  and  thus 
lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  chemistry  and  physics  and 
of  all  science. 

Returning  to  that  chemistry  with  which  we 
started,  we  may  recaU  two  laws  that  were  pro- 
pounded early  in  the  century,  one  of  which  was 
instantly  adopted,  while  the  other  had  to  wait  for 
its  day.  Dalton's  law  of  definite  and  multiple  pro- 
portions has  been  ever  since  1808  the  corner  stone 
of  chemical  science,  and  the  atomic  theory  by 
which  he  sought  to  explain  the  law  has  exercised 
a  profound  influence  upon  all  modern  speculation. 
The  other  law,  announced  by  Avogadro  in  1811, 
that,  "  under  the  same  conditions  of-  pressure  and 
temperature,  equal  volumes  of  all  gaseous  sub- 
stances, whether  elementary  or  compound,  contain 
the  same  number  of  molecules,"  was  neglected  for 
nearly  fifty  years,  and  then,  when  it  was  taken  up 
and  applied,  it  remodelled  the  whole  science  of 
chemistry,  and  threw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  in- 
ternal constitution  of  matter.     In  tliis  direction  a 


A  Century  of  Science  29 

new  world  of  speculation  is  opening  up  before  us, 
fuU  of  wondrous  charm.  The  amazing  progress 
made  since  Priestley's  day  may  be  summed  up  in 
a  sinofle  contrast.  In  1781  Cavendish  ascertained 
the  bare  fact  that  water  is  made  up  of  oxygen  and 
hydrogen  ;  within  ninety  years  from  that  time  Sir 
WiUiam  Thomson  was  able  to  teU  us  that  ''  if  the 
drop  of  water  were  magnified  to  the  size  of  the 
earth,  the  constituent  atoms  would  be  larger  than 
peas,  but  not  so  large  as  billiard  balls."  Such  a 
statement  is  confessedly  provisional,  but,  allowing 
for  this,  the  contrast  is  no  less  striking. 

Concerning  the  various  and  complicated  appli- 
cations of  physical  science  to  the  arts,  by  which 
human  life  has  been  so  profoundly  aifected  in  the 
present  century,  a  mere  catalogue  of  them  would 
tax  our  attention  to  little  purpose.  As  my  object 
in  the  present  sketch  is  simply  to  trace  the  broad 
outhnes  of  advance  in  pure  science,  I  pass  over 
these  applications,  merely  observing  that  the  per- 
petual interaction  between  theory  and  practice  is 
such  that  each  new  invention  is  liable  to  modify 
the  science  in  which  it  originated,  either  by  en- 
countering fresh  questions  or  by  suggesting  new 
methods,  or  in  both  these  ways.  The  work  of 
men  like  Pasteur  and  Koch  cannot  fail  to  influence 
biological  theory   as   much   as   medical   practice. 


30  A  Century  of  Science 

The  practical  uses  of  electricity  are  introducing 
new  features  into  the  whole  subject  of  molecular 
physics,  and  in  this  region,  I  suspect,  we  are  to 
look  for  some  of  the  most  striking  disclosures  of 
the  immediate  future. 

A  word  must  be  said  of  the  historical  sciences, 
which  have  witnessed  as  great  changes  as  any 
others,  mainly  through  the  introduction  of  the  com- 
parative method  of  inquiry.  The  first  two  great 
triumphs  of  the  comparative  method  were  achieved 
contemporaneously  in  two  fields  of  inquiry  very 
remote  from  one  another  :  the  one  was  the  work 
of  Cuvier,  above  mentioned ;  the  other  was  the 
founding  of  the  comparative  philology  of  the  Ar- 
yan languages  by  Franz  Bopp,  in  1816.  The  work 
of  Bopp  exerted  as  powerful  an  influence  through- 
out all  the  historical  fields  of  study  as  Cuvier  ex- 
erted in  biology.  The  young  men  whose  minds 
were  receiving  their  formative  impulses  between 
1825  and  1840,  under  the  various  influences  of 
Cuvier  and  Saint-Hilaire,  Lyell,  Goethe,  Bopp, 
and  other  such  great  leaders,  began  themselves 
to  come  to  the  foreground  as  leaders  of  thought 
about  1860  :  on  the  one  hand,  such  men  as  Dar- 
win, Gray,  Huxley,  and  Wallace  ;  on  the  other 
hand,  such  as  Kuhn  and  Schleicher,  Maine,  Mau- 
rer,  Mommsen,  Freeman,  and  Tylor.     The  point 


A  Century  of  Science  31 

of  the  comparative  method,  in  whatever  field  it 
may  be  applied,  is  that  it  brings  before  us  a  great 
number  of  objects  so  nearly  alike  that  we  are 
bound  to  assume  for  them  an  origin  and  general 
history  in  common,  while  at  the  same  time  they 
present  such  differences  in  detail  as  to  suggest 
that  some  have  advanced  further  than  others  in 
the  direction  in  which  all  are  travelling;  some, 
again,  have  been  abruptly  arrested,  others  perhaps 
even  turned  aside  from  the  path.  In  the  attempt 
to  classify  such  phenomena,  whether  in  the  histori- 
cal or  in  the  physical  sciences,  the  conception  of 
development  is  presented  to  the  student  with  irre- 
sistible force.  In  the  case  of  the  Aryan  languages, 
no  one  would  think  of  doubting  their  descent  from 
a  common  original :  just  side  by  side  is  the  paral- 
lel case  of  one  sub-group  of  the  Aryan  languages, 
namely,  the  seven  Romance  languages  which  we 
know  to  have  been  developed  out  of  Latin  since 
the  Christian  era.  In  these  cases  we  can  study 
the  process  of  change  resulting  in  forms  that  are 
more  or  less  divergent  from  their  originals.  In 
one  quarter  a  form  is  retained  with  little  modifica- 
tion ;  in  another  it  is  completely  blurred,  as  the 
Latin  metipsissimus  becomes  medesimo  in  Italian, 
but  mismo  in  Spanish,  while  in  modern  French 
there  is  nothing  left  of  it  but  meme.     So  in  San- 


32  A  Century  of  Science 

skrit  and  in  Lithuanian  we  find  a  most  ingenious 
and  elaborate  system  of  conjugation  and  declen- 
sion, which  in  such  languages  as  Greek  and  Latin 
is  more  or  less  curtailed  and  altered,  and  which  in 
English  is  almost  completely  lost.  Yet  in  Old 
English  there  are  quite  enough  vestiges  of  the  sys- 
tem to  enable  us  to  identify  it  with  the  Lithua- 
nian and  Sanskrit. 

So  the  student  who  applies  the  comparative 
method  to  the  study  of  human  customs  and  insti- 
tutions is  continually  finding  usages,  beliefs,  or 
laws  existing  in  one  part  of  the  world  that  have 
long  since  ceased  to  exist  in  another  part ;  yet 
where  they  have  ceased  to  exist  they  have  often 
left  unmistakable  traces  of  their  former  existence. 
In  Australasia  we  find  types  of  savagery  ignorant 
of  the  bow  and  arrow  ;  in  aboriginal  North  Amer- 
ica, a  type  of  barbarism  familiar  with  the  art  of 
pottery,  but  ignorant  of  domestic  animals  or  of 
the  use  of  metals ;  among  the  earliest  Romans,  a 
higher  type  of  barbarism,  familiar  with  iron  and 
cattle,  but  ignorant  of  the  alphabet.  Along  with 
such  gradations  in  material  culture  we  find  as- 
sociated  gradations  in  ideas,  in  social  structure, 
and  in  deep-seated  customs.  Thus,  some  kind  of 
fetishism  is  apt  to  prevail  in  the  lower  stages  of 
barbarism,  and  some  form  of  polytheism  in    the 


A  Century  of  Science  33 

higher  stages.  The  units  of  composition  in  sav- 
age and  barbarous  societies  are  always  the  clan, 
the  phratry,  and  the  tribe.  In  the  lower  stages 
of  barbarism  we  see  such  confederacies  as  those  of 
the  Iroquois ;  in  the  highest  stage,  at  the  dawn  of 
civilization,  we  begin  to  find  nations  imperfectly 
formed  by  conquest  without  incorporation,  like 
aboriginal  Peru  or  ancient  Assyria.  In  the  lower 
stages  we  see  captives  tortured  to  death,  then  at 
a  later  stage  sacrificed  to  the  tutelar  deities,  then 
later  on  enslaved  and  compelled  to  till  the  soil. 
Through  the  earlier  stages  of  culture,  as  in  Aus- 
tralasia and  aboriginal  America,  we  find  the  mar- 
riage tie  so  loose  and  paternity  so  micertain  that 
kinship  is  reckoned  only  through  the  mother ;  but  in 
the  highest  stage  of  barbarism,  as  among  the  ear- 
liest Greeks,  Romans,  and  Jews,  the  more  definite 
patriarchal  family  is  developed,  and  kinship  begins 
to  be  reckoned  through  the  father.  It  is  only 
after  that  stage  is  reached  that  inheritance  of  pro- 
perty becomes  fully  developed,  with  the  substitu- 
tion of  individual  ownership  for  clan  ownership, 
and  so  on  to  the  development  of  testamentary  suc- 
cession, individual  responsibility  for  delict  and 
crime,  and  the  substitution  of  contract  for  status. 
In  all  such  instances  —  and  countless  others  might 
be  cited  —  we  see  the  marks  of  an  intelligible  pro- 


34  A  Ceyitury  of  Science 

gression,  a  line  of  development  which  human  ideas 
and  institutions  have  followed.  But  in  the  most 
advanced  societies  we  find  numerous  traces  of  such 
states  of  things  as  now  exist  only  among  savage  or 
barbarous  societies.  Our  own  ancestors  were  once 
polytheists,  with  plenty  of  traces  of  fetishism. 
They  were  organized  in  clans,  phratries,  and  tribes. 
There  was  a  time  when  they  used  none  but  stone 
tools  and  weapons;  when  there  was  no  private 
property  in  land,  and  no  political  structure  higher 
than  the  tribe.  Among  the  forefathers  of  the  pre- 
sent civilized  inhabitants  of  Europe  are  unmistak- 
able traces  of  human  sacrifices,  and  of  the  reckon- 
ing of  kinship  through  the  mother  only.  When 
we  have  come  to  survey  large  groups  of  facts  of 
this  sort,  the  conclusion  is  irresistibly  driven  home 
to  us  that  the  more  advanced  societies  have  gone 
through  various  stages  now  represented  here  and 
there  by  less  advanced  societies ;  that  there  is  a 
general  path  of  social  development,  along  which, 
owing  to  special  circumstances,  some  peoples  have 
advanced  a  great  way,  some  a  less  way,  some  but 
a  very  little  way ;  and  that  by  studying  existing 
savages  and  barbarians  we  get  a  valuable  clue  to 
the  interpretation  of  prehistoric  times.  All  these 
things  are  to-day  commonplaces  among  students 
of  history  and  archaeology  ;  sixty  years  ago  they 


A  Century  of  Science  35 

would  have  been  scouted  as  idle  vagaries.  It  is 
the  introduction  of  such  methods  of  study  that  is 
making  history  scientific.  It  is  enabling  us  to  di- 
gest the  huge  masses  of  facts  that  are  daily  poured 
in  upon  us  by  decipherers  of  the  past,  —  monu- 
ments, inscriptions,  pottery,  weapons,  ethnological 
reports,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  —  and  to  make 
all  contribute  toward  a  coherent  theory  of  the 
career  of  mankind  upon  the  earth. 

In  the  course  of  the  foregoing  survey  one  fact 
stands  out  with  especial  prominence :  it  appears 
that  about  half  a  century  ago  the  foremost  minds 
of  the  world,  with  whatever  group  of  phenomena 
they  were  occupied,  had  fallen,  and  were  more  and 
more  falling,  into  a  habit  of  regarding  things,  not 
as  having  originated  in  the  shape  in  which  we  now 
find  them,  but  as  having  been  slowly  metamor- 
phosed from  some  other  shape  through  the  agency 
of  forces  similar  in  nature  to  forces  now  at  work. 
Whether  planets,  or  mountains,  or  mollusks,  or 
subjunctive  moods,  or  tribal  confederacies  were  the 
things  studied,  the  scholars  who  studied  them  most 
deeply  and  most  fruitfully  were  those  who  studied 
them  as  phases  in  a  process  of  development.  The 
work  of  such  scholars  has  formed  the  strong  cur- 
rent of  thought  in  our  time,  while  the  work  of 
those  who  did  not  catch  these  new  methods  has 


36  A  Century  of  Science 

been  dropped  by  the  way  and  forgotten;  and  as 
we  look  back  to  Newton's  time  we  can  see  that 
ever  since  then  the  drift  of  scientific  thought  has 
been  setting  in  this  direction,  and  with  increasing 
steadiness  and  force. 

Now,  what  does  all  this  drift  of  scientific  opinion 
during  more  than  two  centuries  mean  ?  It  can,  of 
course,  have  but  one  meaning.  It  means  that  the 
world  is  in  a  process  of  development,  and  that 
gradually,  as  advancing  knowledge  has  enabled  us 
to  take  a  sufficiently  wide  view  of  the  world,  we 
have  come  to  see  that  it  is  so.  The  old  statical 
conception  of  a  world  created  all  at  once  in  its  pre- 
sent shape  was  the  result  of  very  narrow  experience  ; 
it  was  entertained  when  we  knew  only  an  extremely 
small  segment  of  the  world.  Now  that  our  experi- 
ence has  widened,  it  is  outgrown  and  set  aside  for- 
ever ;  it  is  replaced  by  the  dynamical  conception 
of  a  world  in  a  perpetual  process  of  evolution  from 
one  state  into  another  state.  This  dynamical  con- 
ception has  come  to  stay  with  us.  Our  theories  as 
to  what  the  process  of  evolution  is  may  be  more 
or  less  wrong  and  are  confessedly  tentative,  as 
scientific  theories  should  be.  But  the  dynamical 
conception,  which  is  not  the  work  of  any  one  man, 
be  he  Darwin  or  Spencer  or  any  one  else,  but  the 
result  of  the  cumulative  experience  of  the  last  two 


A  Century  of  Science  ST 

centuries,  —  this  is  a  permanent  acquisition.  We 
can  no  more  revert  to  the  statical  conception  than 
we  can  turn  back  the  sun  in  his  course.  Whatever 
else  the  philosophy  of  future  generations  may  be, 
it  must  be  some  kind  of  a  philosophy  of  evolution. 

Such  is  the  scientific  conquest  achieved  by  the 
nineteenth  century,  a  marvellous  story  without  any 
parallel  in  the  history  of  human  achievement.  The 
swiftness  of  the  advance  has  been  due  partly  to 
the  removal  of  the  ancient  legal  and  social  tram- 
mels that  beset  free  thinking  in  every  conceivable 
direction.  It  is  largely  due  also  to  the  use  of  cor- 
rect methods  of  research.  The  waste  of  intellec- 
tual effort  has  been  less  than  in  former  ages.  The 
substitution  of  Lavoisier's  balance  for  Stahl's  a 
priori  reasoning  is  one  among  countless  instances 
of  this.  Sound  scientific  method  is  a  slow  acquisi- 
tion of  the  human  mind,  and  for  its  more  rapid 
introduction,  in  Priestley's  time  and  since,  we  have 
largely  to  thank  the  example  set  by  those  giants  of 
a  former  age,  Galileo  and  Kepler,  Descartes  and 
Newton. 

The  lessons  that  might  be  derived  from  our  story 
are  many.  But  one  that  we  may  especially  empha- 
size is  the  dignity  of  Man  whose  persistent  seeking 
for  truth  is  rewarded  by  such  fruits.  We  may  be 
sure  that  the  creature  whose  intelligence  measures 


38  A  Century  of  Science 

the  pulsations  of  molecules  and  unravels  the  secret 
of  the  whirling  nebula  is  no  creature  of  a  day,  but 
the  child  of  the  universe,  the  heir  of  all  the  ages, 
in  whose  making  and  perfecting  is  to  be  found  the 
consummation  of  God's  creative  work. 
May,  1896. 


II 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  EVOLUTION:  ITS  SCOPE 
AND   PURPORT 1 

It  was  not  strange  that  among  the  younger  men 
whose  opinions  were  moulded  between  1830  and 
1840  there  should  have  been  one  of  organizing 
genius,  with  a  mind  inexhaustibly  fertile  in  sugges- 
tions, who  should  undertake  to  elaborate  a  general 
doctrine  of  evolution,  to  embrace  in  one  grand  co- 
herent system  of  generalizations  all  the  minor  gen- 
eralizations which  workers  in  different  departments 
of  science  were  establishing.  It  is  this  prodigious 
work  of  construction  that  we  owe  to  Herbert  Spen- 
cer. He  is  the  originator  and  author  of  what  we 
know  to-day  as  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  the  doc- 
trine which  undertakes  to  formulate  and  put  into 
scientific  shape  the  conception  of  evolution  toward 
which  scientific  investigation  had  so  long  been  tend- 
ing. In  the  mind  of  the  general  public  there  seems 
to  be  dire  confusion  with  regard  to  Mr.  Spencer 

1  Part  of  an  address  before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association, 
May  31,  1891. 


40  A  Century  of  Science 

and  his  relations  to  evolution  and  to  Darwinism. 
Sometimes,  I  believe,  he  is  even  supposed  to  be 
chiefly  a  follower  and  expounder  of  Mr.  Darwin  ! 
No  doubt  this  is  because  so  many  people  mix  up 
Darwinism  with  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  and  have 
but  the  vaguest  and  haziest  notions  as  to  what  it  is 
all  about.  As  I  explained  above,  Mr.  Darwin's 
great  work  was  the  discovery  of  natural  selection, 
and  the  demonstration  of  its  agency  in  effecting 
specific  changes  in  plants  and  animals ;  and  in 
that  work  he  was  completely  original.  But  plants 
and  animals  are  only  a  part  of  the  universe,  though 
an  important  part,  and  with  regard  to  universal 
evolution  or  any  universal  formula  for  evolution 
Darwinism  had  nothing  to  say.  Such  problems 
were  beyond  its  scope. 

The  discovery  of  a  universal  formula  for  evolu- 
tion, and  the  application  of  this  formula  to  many 
diverse  groups  of  phenomena,  have  been  the  great 
work  of  Mr.  Spencer,  and  in  this  he  has  had  no 
predecessor.  His  wealth  of  originality  is  inmiense, 
and  it  is  unquestionable.  But  as  the  most  original 
thinker  must  take  his  start  from  the  general  stock 
of  ideas  accumulated  at  his  epoch,  and  more  often 
than  not  begins  by  following  a  clue  given  him  by 
somebody  else,  so  it  was  with  Mr.  Spencer  when, 
about  forty  years  ago,  he  was  working  out  his  doc- 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  41 

trine  of  evolution.  The  clue  was  not  given  by 
Mr.  Darwin.  Darwinism  was  not  yet  born.  Mr. 
Spencer's  theory  was  worked  out  in  all  its  parts, 
and  many  parts  of  it  had  been  expounded  in  vari- 
ous published  volumes  and  essays  before  the  publi- 
cation of  the  "  Origin  of  Species." 

The  clue  which  Mr.  Spencer  followed  was  given 
him  by  the  great  embryologist,  Karl  Ernst  von 
Baer,  and  an  adumbration  of  it  may  perhaps 
be  traced  back  through  Kaspar  Friedricli  Wolf 
to  Linnreus.  Hints  of  it  may  be  found,  too,  in 
Goethe  and  in  Schelling.  The  advance  from  sim- 
plicity to  complexity  in  the  development  of  an 
Qgg  is  too  obvious  to  be  overlooked  by  any  one, 
and  was  remarked  upon,  I  believe,  by  Harvey ; 
but  the  analysis  of  what  that  advance  consists 
in  was  a  wonderfully  suggestive  piece  of  work. 
Baer's  great  book  was  published  in  1829,  just  at 
the  time  when  so  many  stimulating  ideas  were 
being  enunciated,  and  its  significant  title  was 
EntwickelungsgescMclite^  or  "  History  of  Evolu- 
tion." It  was  well  known  that,  so  far  as  the 
senses  can  tell  us,  one  ovum  is  indistinguishable 
from  another,  whether  it  be  that  of  a  man,  a  fish, 
or  a  parrot.  The  ovum  is  a  structureless  bit  of 
OiTganic  matter,  and,  in  acquiring  structure  along 
v/ith  its  growth  in  volume  and  mass,  it  proceeds 


\ 


42  A  Century  of  Science 

through  a  series  of  differentiations,  and  the  result 
is  a  change  from  homogeneity  to  heterogeneity. 
Such  was  Baer's  conclusion,  to  which  scanty  jus- 
tice is  done  by  such  a  brief  statement.  As  all 
know,  his  work  marked  an  epoch  in  the  study 
of  embryology ;  for  to  mark  the  successive  differ- 
entiations in  the  embryos  of  a  thousand  animals 
was  to  write  a  thousand  life  histories  upon  correct 
principles. 

Here  it  was  that  Mr.  Spencer  started.  As  a 
young  man,  he  was  chiefly  interested  in  the  study 
of  political  government  and  in  history  so  far  as  it 
helps  the  study  of  politics.  A  philosophical  student 
of  such  subjects  must  naturally  seek  for  a  theory 
of  evolution.  If  I  may  cite  my  own  experience,  it 
was  largely  the  absorbing  and  overmastering  pas- 
sion for  the  study  of  history  that  first  led  me  to 
study  evolution  in  order  to  obtain  a  correct  method. 
When  one  has  frequent  occasion  to  refer  to  the 
political  and  social  progress  of  the  human  race, 
one  likes  to  know  what  one  is  talking  about.  Mr. 
Spencer  needed  a  theory  of  progi'ess.  He  could 
see  that  the  civilized  part  of  mankind  has  under- 
gone some  change  from  a  bestial,  unsocial,  per- 
petually fighting  stage  of  savagery  into  a  partially 
peaceful  and  comparatively  humane  and  social 
stage,  and  that  we  may  reasonably  hope  that  the 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  43 

change  in  this  direction  will  go  on.  He  could  see, 
too,  that  along  with  this  change  there  has  been  a 
building-up  of  tribes  into  nations,  a  division  of 
labour,  a  differentiation  of  governmental  functions, 
a  series  of  changes  in  the  relations  of  the  individ- 
ual to  the  community.  To  see  so  much  as  this  is 
to  whet  one's  craving  for  enlarged  resources  where- 
with to  study  human  progress.  Mr.  Spencer  had 
a  wide,  accurate,  and  often  profound  acquaintance 
with  botany,  zoology,  and  allied  studies.  The 
question  naturally  occurred  to  him.  Where  do  we 
find  the  process  of  development  most  completely 
exemplified  from  beginning  to  end,  so  that  we  can 
follow  and  exhaustively  describe  its  consecutive 
phases?  Obviously  in  the  development  of  the 
ovum.  There,  and  only  there,  do  we  get  the  whole 
process  under  our  eyes  from  the  first  segmentation 
of  the  yolk  to  the  death  of  the  matured  individual. 
In  other  groups  of  phenomena  we  can  only  see  a 
small  part  of  what  is  going  on ;  they  are  too  vast  for 
us,  as  in  astronomy,  or  too  complicated,  as  in  so- 
ciology. Elsewhere  our  evidences  of  development 
are  more  or  less  piecemeal  and  scattered,  but  in  em- 
bryology we  do  get,  at  any  rate,  a  connected  story. 
So  Mr.  Spencer  took  up  Baer's  problem,  and 
carried  the  solution  of  it  much  further  than  the 
great   Esthonian  naturalist.     He  showed   that  in 


44  A  Century  of  Science 

the  development  of  the  ovum  the  change  from 
homogeneity  to  heterogeneity  is  accompanied  by  a 
change  from  indefiniteness  to  definiteness  ;  there 
are  segregations  of  similarly  differentiated  units 
resulting  in  the  formation  of  definite  organs.  He 
further  showed  that  there  is  a  parallel  and  equally 
important  change  from  incoherence  to  coherence  ; 
along  with  the  division  of  labour  among  the  units 
there  is  an  organization  of  labour  :  at  first,  among 
the  homogeneous  units  there  is  no  subordination, 
—  to  subtract  one  would  not  alter  the  general  as- 
pect ;  but  at  last,  among  the  heterogeneous  organs 
there  is  such  subordination  and  interdependence 
that  to  subtract  any  one  is  liable  to  undo  the  whole 
process  and  destroy  the  organism.  In  other  words, 
integration  is  as  much  a  feature  of  development 
as  differentiation ;  the  change  is  not  simply  from 
a  structureless  whole  into  parts,  but  it  is  from  a 
structureless  whole  into  an  organized  whole  with 
a  consensus  of  different  functions,  and  that  is  what 
we  call  an  organism.  So  while  Baer  said  that  the 
evolution  of  the  chick  is  a  change  from  homoge- 
neity to  heterogeneity  through  successive  differen- 
tiations, Mr.  Spencer  said  that  the  evolution  of 
the  chick  is  a  continuous  change  from  indefuiite 
incoherent  homogeneity  to  definite  coherent  het- 
erogeneity through  successive  differentiations  and 
integrations. 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  45 

But  Mr.  Spencer  had  now  done  something  more 
than  describe  exhaustively  the  evolution  of  an  in- 
dividual organism.  He  had  got  a  standard  of  high 
and  low  degrees  of  organization  ;  and  the  next 
thing  in  order  was  to  apply  this  standard  to  the 
whole  hierarchy  of  animals  and  plants  according 
to  their  classified  relationships  and  their  succession 
in  geological  time.  This  was  done  with  most  bril- 
liant success.  From  the  earliest  records  in  the 
rocks,  the  general  advance  in  types  of  organization 
has  been  an  advance  in  definiteness,  coherence,  and 
heterogeneity.  The  method  of  evolution  in  the 
life  history  of  the  animal  and  vegetal  kingdoms 
has  been  like  the  method  of  evolution*  in  the  life 
history  of  the  individual. 

To  go  into  the  inorganic  world  with  such  a 
formula  might  seem  rash.  But  as  the  growth  of 
organization  is  essentially  a  particular  kind  of  re- 
distribution of  matter  and  motion,  and  as  redistri- 
bution of  matter  ajid  motion  is  going  on  universally 
in  the  inorganic  world,  it  is  interesting  to  inquire 
whether,  in  such  simple  approaches  toward  organi- 
zation as  we  find,  there  is  any  approach  toward  the 
characteristics  of  organic  evolution  as  above  de- 
scribed. It  was  easy  for  Mr.  Spencer  to  show  that 
the  change  from  a  nebula  into  a  planetary  system 
conforms  to  the  definition  of  evolution  in  a  way 


46  A  Century  of  Science 

that  is  most  striking  and  suggestive.  But  in 
studying  the  inorganic  world  Mr.  Spencer  was  led 
to  modify  his  formula  in  a  way  that  vastly  in- 
creased its  scope.  He  came  to  see  that  the  primary 
feature  of  evolution  is  an  integration  of  matter 
and  concomitant  dissipation  of  motion.  According 
to  circumstances,  this  process  may  or  not  be  at- 
tended with  extensive  internal  rearrangements  and 
development  of  organization.  The  continuous  in- 
ternal rearrangement  implied  in  the  development 
of  organization  is  possible  only  where  there  is  a 
medium  degree  of  mobility  among  the  particles,  a 
plasticity  such  as  is  secured  only  by  those  peculiar 
chemical  combinations  which  make  up  what  we  call 
organic  matter.  In  the  inorganic  world,  where 
there  is  an  approach  to  organization  there  is  an 
adumbration  of  the  law  as  realized  in  the  organic 
world.  But  in  the  former,  what  strikes  us  most 
is  the  concentration  of  the  mass  with  the  reten- 
tion of  but  little  internal  mobility ;  in  the  latter, 
what  strikes  us  most  is  the  wonderful  complication 
of  the  transformations  wrought  by  the  immense 
amount  of  internal  mobiHty  retained.  These 
transformations  are  to  us  the  mark,  the  distinguish- 
ing feature,  of  life. 

Having  thus  got  the  nature  of  the  differences 
between  the  organic  and  inorganic  worlds  into  a 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  47 

series  of  suggestive  formulas,  the  next  thing  to  be 
done  was  to  inquire  into  the  applicability  of  the 
law  of  evolution  to  the  higher  manifestations  of 
vital  activity,  —  in  other  words,  to  psychical  and 
social  life.  Here  it  was  easy  to  point  out  analogies 
between  the  development  of  society  and  the  devel- 
opment of  an  organism.  Between  a  savage  state 
of  society  and  a  civilized  state,  it  is  easy  to  see 
the  contrasts  in  complexity  of  life,  in  division  of 
labour,  in  interdependence  and  coherence  of  opera- 
tions and  of  interests.  The  difference  resembles 
that  between  a  vertebrate  animal  and  a  worm. 

Such  analogies  are  instructive,  because  at  the 
bottom  of  the  phenomena  there  is  a  certain  amount 
of  real  identity.  But  Mr.  Spencer  did  not  stop  with 
analogies ;  he  pursued  his  problem  into  much 
deeper  regions.  There  is  one  manifest  distinction 
between  a  society  and  an  organism.  In  the  organ- 
ism, the  conscious  life,  the  psychical  life,  is  not  in 
the  parts,  but  in  the  whole ;  but  in  a  society,  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  corporate  consciousness  :  the  psy- 
chical life  is  aU  in  the  individual  men  and  women. 
The  highest  development  of  this  psychical  life  is 
the  end  for  which  the  world  exists.  The  object  of 
social  life  is  the  highest  spiritual  welfare  of  the 
individual  members  of  society.  The  individual 
human  soul  thus  comes  to  be  as  much  the  centre 


ri< 


l^j 


48  A  Century  of  Science 

of  the  Spencerian  world  as  it  was  the  centre  of  the 
world  of  mediaeval  theology ;  and  the  history  of 
the  evolution  of  conscious  intelligence  becomes  a 
theme  of  surpassing  interest. 

This  is  the  part  of  his  subject  which  Mr.  Spen- 
cer has  handled  in  the  most  masterly  manner. 
Nothing  in  the  literature  of  psychology  is  more  re- 
markable than  the  long-sustained  analysis  in  which 
he  starts  with  complicated  acts  of  quantitative  rea- 
soning and  resolves  them  into  their  elementary 
processes,  and  then  goes  on  to  simpler  acts  of 
judgment  and  perception,  and  then  down  to  sensa- 
tion, and  so  on  resolving  and  resolving,  until  he 
gets  down  to  the  simple  homogeneous  psychical 
shocks  or  pulses  in  the  manifold  compounding  and 
recompounding  of  which  all  mental  action  consists. 
Then,  starting  afresh  from  that  conception  of  life  as 
the  continuous  adjustment  of  inner  relations  within 
the  organism  to  outer  relations  in  the  environment, 
—  a  conception  of  which  he  made  such  brilliant 
use  in  his  "  Principles  of  Biology,"  —  he  shows 
how  the  psychical  life  gradually  becomes  special- 
ized in  certain  classes  of  adjustments  or  correspond- 
ences, and  how  the  development  of  psychical  life 
consists  in  a  progressive  differentiation  and  inte- 
gration of  such  correspondences.  Intellectual  life 
is  shown  to  have  arisen  by  slow  gTadations,  and 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  49 

the  special  interpretations  of  reflex  action,  instinct, 
memory,  reason,  emotion,  and  will  are  such  as  to 
make  the  "  Principles  of  Psychology  "  indubitably 
the  most  suggestive  book  upon  mental  phenomena 
that  was  ever  written. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  first  edition  of  the  "  Origin 
of  Species,"  published  in  1859,  Mr.  Darwin  looked 
forward  to  a  distant  future  when  the  conception  of 
gradual  development  might  be  applied  to  the  phe- 
nomena of  intelligence.  But  the  first  edition  of 
the  "  Principles  of  Psychology,"  in  which  this  was  so 
successfully  done,  had  already  been  published  four 
years  before,  — in  1855,  —  so  that  Mr.  Darwin  in 
later  editions  was  obliged  to  modify  his  statement, 
and  confess  that,  instead  of  looking  so  far  forward, 
he  had  better  have  looked  about  him.  I  remem- 
ber hearing  Mr.  Darwin  laugh  merrily  over  this  at 
his  own  expense. 

This  extension  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  to 
psychical  phenomena  was  what  made  it  a  universal 
doctrine,  an  account  of  the  way  in  which  the  world, 
as  we  know  it,  has  been  evolved.  There  is  no  sub- 
ject, great  or  small,  that  has  not  come  to  be  af- 
fected by  the  doctrine,  and,  whether  men  realize  it 
or  not,  there  is  no  nook  or  corner  in  speculative 
science  where  they  can  get  away  from  the  sweep 
of  Mr.  Spencer's  thought. 


50  A  Century  of  Science 

This  extension  of  the  doctrine  to  psychical  phe- 
nomena is  by  many  people  misunderstood.  The 
"  Principles  of  Psychology  "  is  a  marvel  of  straight- 
forward and  lucid  statement ;  but,  from  its  immense 
reach  and  from  the  abstruseness  of  the  subject,  it 
is  not  easy  reading.  It  requires  a  sustained  atten- 
tion such  as  few  people  can  command,  except  on 
subjects  with  which  they  are  already  familiar. 
Hence  few  people  read  it  in  comparison  with  the 
number  who  have  somehow  got  it  into  their  heads 
that  Mr.  Spencer  tries  to  explain  mind  as  evolved 
out  of  matter,  and  is  therefore  a  materialist.  How 
many  worthy  critics  have  been  heard  to  object  to 
the  doctrine  of  evolution  that  you  cannot  deduce 
mind  from  the  primeval  nebula,  unless  the  germs 
of  mind  were  present  already  !  But  that  is  just 
what  Mr.  Spencer  says  himself.  I  have  heard 
him  say  it  more  than  once,  and  his  books  contain 
many  passages  of  equivalent  import.^  He  never 
misses  an  opportunity  for  attacking  the  doctrine 
that  mind  can  be  explained  as  evolved  from  mat- 
ter. But,  in  spite  of  this,  a  great  many  people  sup- 
pose that  the  gradual  evolution  of  mind  must  mean 
its  evolution  out  of  matter,  and  are  deaf  to  argu- 
ments of  which  they  do  not  perceive  the  bearing. 

1  See,  for  example,  Principles  of  Psychology,  second  edition, 
1870-72,  vol.  ii.  pp.  145-162. 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  51 

Hence  Mr.  Spencer  is  so  commonly  accredited  with 
the  doctrine  which  he  so  earnestly  repudiates. 

But  there  is  another  reason  why  people  are  apt 
to  suppose  the  doctrine  of  evolution  to  be  material- 
istic in  its  implications.  There  are  able  writers 
who  have  done  good  service  in  illustrating  portions 
of  the  general  doctrine,  and  are  at  the  same  time 
avowed  materialists.  One  may  be  a  materialist, 
whatever  his  scientific  theory  of  things ;  and  to 
such  a  person  the  materialism  naturally  seems  to  be 
a  logical  consequence  from  the  scientific  theory. 
We  have  received  this  evening  a  commmiication 
from  Professor  Ernst  Haeckel,  of  Jena,  in  which 
he  lays  down  five  theses  regarding  the  doctrine  of 
evolution :  — 

1.  "  The  general  doctrine  appears  to  be  already 
unassailably  founded ; 

2.  "  Thereby  every  supernatural  creation  is  com- 
pletely excluded ; 

3.  "  Transformism  and  the  theory  of  descent  are 
inseparable  constituent  parts  of  the  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution ; 

4.  "  The  necessary  consequence  of  this  last  con- 
clusion is  the  descent  of  man  from  a  series  of  ver- 
tebrates." 

So  far,  very  good ;  we  are  within  the  limits  of 
scientific  competence,  where  Professor  Haeckel  is 


52  A  Century  of  Science 

strong.     But  now,  in  his  fifth  thesis,  he  enters  the 

region  of  metaphysics,  —  the  transcendental  region, 

j  which  science  has  no  competent  methods  of  explor- 

*  ing,  —  and  commits  himself  to  a  dogmatic  assertion  : 

5.  "The  beliefs  in  an   'immortal  soul'  and  in 

'a  personal  God'  are  therewith"  (i.  e.,  with  the 

four  preceding  statements)  "  completely  ununitable 

(yollig  unvereinhar')  .^^ 

Now,  if  Professor  Haeckel  had  contented  himself 
'Vith  asserting  that  these  two  beliefs  are  not  suscep- 
tible of  scientific  demonstration  ;  if  he  had  simply 
said  that  they  are  beliefs  concerning  which  a  scien- 
tific man,  in  his  scientific  capacity,  ought  to  refrain 
from  making  assertions,  because  Science  knows  no- 
thing whatever  about  the  subject,  he  would  have 
occupied  an  impregnable  position.  His  fifth  the- 
sis would  have  been  as  indisputable  as  his  first  four. 
But  Professor  Haeckel  does  not  stop  here.  He  de- 
clares virtually  that  if  an  evolutionist  is  found 
entertaining  the  beliefs  in  a  personal  God  and  an  im- 
mortal soul,  nevertheless  these  beliefs  are  not  philo- 
sophically reconcilable  with  his  scientific  theory  of 
things,  but  are  mere  remnants  of  an  old-fashioned 
superstition  from  which  he  has  not  succeeded  in 
freeing  himself. 

Here  one  must  pause  to  inquire  what  Professor 
leckel  means  by  "  a  personal  God."     If  he  refers 


Scope  and  Purport  of  E'volution  53 

to  the  Latin  conception  of  a  God  remote  from  the 
world  of  phenomena,  and  manifested  only  through 
occasional  interference, — the  conception  that  has 
until  lately  prevailed  in  the  Western  world  since 
the  time  of  St.  Augustine,  —  then  we  may  agree 
with  him;  the  practical  effect  of  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  is  to  abolish  such  a  conception.  But 
with  regard  to  the  Greek  conception  entertained 
by  St.  Athanasius ;  the  conception  of  God  as  im- 
manent in  the  world  of  phenomena  and  manifested 
in  every  throb  of  its  mighty  rhythmical  life ;  the 
deity  that  Kichard  Hooker,  prince  of  English 
churchmen,  had  in  mind  when  he  wrote  of  Natural 
Law  that  "  her  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,  and  her 
voice  the  harmony  of  the  world,"  —  with  regard 
to  this  conception  the  practical  effect  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution  is  not  to  abolish,  but  to  strengthen 
and  confirm  it.  For,  into  whatever  province  of 
Nature  we  carry  our  researches,  the  more  deeply 
we  penetrate  into  its  laws  and  methods  of  action, 
the  more  clearly  do  we  see  that  all  provinces  of 
Nature  are  parts  of  an  organic  whole  animated  by 
a  single  principle  of  life  that  is  infinite  and  eter- 
nal. I  have  no  doubt  Professor  Haeckel  would 
not  only  admit  this,  but  would  scout  any  other  view 
as  inconsistent  with  the  monism  which  he  professes. 
But  he  would  say  that  this  infinite  and  eternal 


54  A  Century  of  Science 

principle  of  life  is  not  psychical,  and  therefore  can- 
not be  called  in  any  sense  "  a  personal  God."  In 
an  ultimate  analysis,  I  suspect  Professor  Haeckel's 
ubiquitous  monistic  principle  would  turn  out  to  be 
neither  more  nor  less  than  Dr.  Biichner's  mechan- 
ical force  {Kraft).  On  the  other  hand,  I  have 
sought  to  show  —  in  my  little  book  "  The  Idea  of 
God"  —  that  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Power  that 
animates  the  universe  must  be  psychical  in  its  na- 
ture, that  any  attempt  to  reduce  it  to  mechanical 
force  must  end  in  absurdity,  and  that  the  only 
kind  of  monism  which  will  stand  the  test  of 
an  ultimate  analysis  is  monotheism.  While  in 
the  chapter  on  Anthropomorphic  Theism,  in  my 
"  Cosmic  Philosophy,"  I  have  taken  great  pains  to 
point  out  the  difficulties  in  which  (as  finite  think- 
ers) we  are  involved  when  we  try  to  conceive  the 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Power  as  psychical  in  his  na- 
ture, I  have  in  the  chapter  on  Matter  and  Spirit, 
in  that  same  book,  taken  equal  pains  to  show  that 
we  are  logically  compelled  thus  to  conceive  Him. 

One's  attitude  toward  such  problems  is  likely  to 
be  determined  by  one's  fundamental  conception  of 
psychical  life.  To  a  materialist  the  ultimate  power 
is  mechanical  force,  and  psychical  life  is  nothing 
but  the  temporary  and  local  result  of  fleeting  col- 
locations of  material  elements  in  the  shape  of  ner- 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  55 

vous  systems.  Into  the  endless  circuit  of  transfor- 
mations of  molecular  motion,  says  the  materialist, 
there  enter  certain  phases  which  we  call  feelings 
and  thoughts ;  they  are  part  of  the  circuit ;  they 
arise  out  of  motions  of  material  molecules,  and 
disappear  by  being  retransformed  into  such  mo- 
tions: hence,  with  the  death  of  the  organism  in 
which  such  motions  have  been  temporarily  gath- 
ered into  a  kind  of  unity,  all  psychical  activity  and 
all  personality  are  ipso  facto  abolished.  Such  is 
the.  materialistic  doctrine,  and  such,  I  presume,  is 
what  Professor  Haeckel  has  in  mind  when  he  as- 
serts that  the  behef  in  an  immortal  soul  is  incom- 
patible with  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  The  theory 
commonly  called  that  of  the  correlation  of  forces, 
and  which  might  equally  well  or  better  be  called  the 
theory  of  the  metamorphosis  of  motions,  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  But  for  the 
theory  that  light,  heat,  electricity,  and  nerve-action 
are  different  modes  of  undulatory  motion  trans- 
formable one  into  another,  and  that  similar  modes 
of  motion  are  liberated  by  the  chemical  processes 
going  on  within  the  animal  or  vegetal  organism,  Mr. 
Spencer's  work  could  never  have  been  done.  That 
theory  of  correlation  and  transformation  is  now 
generally  accepted,  and  is  often  appealed  to  by 
materialists.     A  century  ago  Cabanis  said  that  the 


56  A  Century  of  Science 

brain  secretes  thought  as  the  liver  secretes  bile. 
If  he  were  alive  to-day,  he  would  doubtless  smile 
at  this  old  form  of  expression  as  crude,  and  would 
adopt  a  more  subtle  phrase;  he  would  say  that 
"  thought  is  transformed  motion." 

Against  this  interpretation  I  have  maintained 
that  the  theory  of  correlation  not  only  fails  to  sup- 
port it,  but  actually  overthrows  it.  The  arguments 
may  be  found  in  the  chapter  on  Matter  and  Spirit, 
in  my  "  Cosmic  Philosophy,"  published  in  1874,  and 
in  the  essay  entitled  "  A  Crumb  for  the  Modern 
Symposium,"  written  in  1877,  and  reprinted  in 
"  Darwinism  and  Other  Essays."  i  Their  purport  is, 
that  in  tracing  the  correlation  of  motions  into  the  or- 
ganism through  the  nervous  system  and  out  again, 
we  are  bound  to  get  an  account  of  each  step  in 
terms  of  motion.  Unless  we  can  show  that  every 
unit  of  motion  that  disappears  is  transformed  into 
an  exact  quantitative  equivalent,  our  theory  of  cor- 
relation breaks  down  ;  but  when  we  have  shown  this 
we  shall  have  given  a  complete  account  of  the 
whole  affair  without  taking  any  heed  whatever  of 
thought,  feeling,  or  consciousness.  In  other  words, 
these  psychical  activities  do  not  enter  into  the  cir- 
cuit, but  stand  outside  of  it,  as  a  segment  of  a 
circle  may  stand  outside  a  portion  of  an  entire  cir- 

1  See  also  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist,  1883,  pp.  274-282. 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  57 

cumference  with  which  it  is  concentric.  Motion 
is  never  transformed  into  thought,  but  only  into 
some  other  form  of  measurable  (in  fact,  or  at 
any  rate  in  theory,  measurable)  motion  that  takes 
place  in  nerve-threads  and  gangha.  It  is  not  the 
thought,  but  the  nerve-action  that  accompanies  the 
thought,  that  is  really  "  transformed  motion.'^  I 
say  that  if  we  are  going  to  verify  the  theory  of 
correlation,  it  must  be  done  (actually  or  theoreti- 
cally) by  measurement;  quantitative  equivalence 
must  be  proved  at  every  step ;  and  hence  we  must 
not  change  our  unit  of  measurement ;  from  first  to 
last  it  must  be  a  unit  of  motion  :  if  we  change  it  for 
a  moment,  our  theory  of  correlation  that  moment 
collapses.  I  say,  therefore,  that  the  theory  of  cor- 
relation and  equivalence  of  forces  lends  no  support 
whatever  to  materialism.  On  the  contrary,  its 
manifest  implication  is  that  psychical  life  cannot 
be  a  mere  product  of  temporary  collocations  of 
matter. 

The  argument  here  set  forth  is  my  own.  When 
I  first  used  it,  I  had  never  met  with  it  anywhere  in 
books  or  conversation.  Whether  it  has  since  been 
employed  by  other  writers  I  do  not  know,  for  dur- 
ing the  past  fifteen  years  I  have  read  very  few 
books  on  such  subjects.  At  all  events,  it  is  an 
argument  for  which  I  am  ready  to  bear  the  full 


58  A  Century  of  Science 

responsibility.  Some  doubt  has  recently  been  ex- 
pressed whether  Mr.  Spencer  would  admit  the  force 
of  this  argument.  It  has  been  urged  by  Mr.  S.  H. 
Wilder,  in  two  able  papers  published  in  the  "  New 
York  Daily  Tribune,"  June  13  and  July  4,  1890, 
that  the  use  of  this  argument  marks  a  radical 
divergence  on  my  part  from  Mr.  Spencer's  own 
position. 

It  is  true  that  in  several  passages  of  "  First  Prin- 
ciples "  there  are  statements  which  either  imply  or 
distinctly  assert  that  motion  can  be  transformed 
into  feeling  and  thought,  —  e.  g» :  "  Those  modes  of 
the  Unknowable  which  we  caU  heat,  light,  chemi- 
cal affinity,  etc.,  are  alike  transformable  into  each 
other,  and  into  those  modes  of  the  Unknowable 
which  we  distinguish  as  sensation,  emotion,  thought ; 
these,  in  their  turns,  being  directly  or  indirectly  re- 
transformable  into  the  original  shapes ; "  ^  and  again, 
it  is  said  '^  to  be  a  necessary  deduction  from  the 
law  of  correlation  that  what  exists  in  consciousness 
under  the  form  of  feeHng  is  transformable  into 
an  equivalent  of  mechanical  motion,"  etc.^  Now, 
if  this,  as  literally  interpreted,  be  Mr.  Spencer's 
deliberate  opinion,  I  entirely  dissent  from  it.  To 
speak  of  quantitative  equivalence  between  a  unit 

1  First  Principles,  second  edition,  1867,  p.  217. 

2  Id.  p.  558. 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  59 

of  feeling  and  a  unit  of  motion  seems  to  me  to  be 
talking  nonsense,  —  to  be  combining  terms  which 
severally  possess  a  meaning  into  a  phrase  which 
has  no  meaning.  I  am  therefore  inclined  to  think 
that  the  above  sentences,  literally  interpreted,  do 
not  really  convey  Mr.  Spencer's  opinion.  They 
appear  manifestly  inconsistent,  moreover,  with  other 
passages  in  which  he  has  taken  much  more  pains 
to  explain  his  position.^  In  the  sentence  from 
page  558  of  "  First  Principles,"  Mr.  Spencer 
appears  to  me  to  mean  that  the  nerve-action, 
which  is  the  objective  concomitant  of  what  is 
subjectively  known  as  feeling,  is  transformable 
into  an  equivalent  of  mechanical  motion.  When 
he  wrote  that*  sentence  perhaps  he  had  not  shaped 
the  case  quite  so  distinctly  in  his  own  mind  as  he 
had  a  few  years  later,  when  he  made  the  more 
elaborate  statements  in  the  second  edition  of  the 
Psychology.  Though  in  these  more  elaborate  state- 
ments he  does  not  assert  the  doctrine  I  have  here 
maintained,  yet  they  seem  consistent  with  it. 
When  I  was  finishing  the  chapter  on  Matter  and 
Spirit,  in  my  room  in  London,  one  afternoon  in 
February,  1874,  Mr.  Spencer  came  in,  and  I  read 
to    him  nearly  the  whole  chapter,  including  my 

^  See,  e.  g.,   Principles  of  Psychology,  second   edition,  vol.  i. 
pp.  158-161,  616-627. 


60  A  Century  of  Science 

argument  from  correlation  above  mentioned.  He 
expressed  warm  approval  of  the  chapter,  without 
making  any  specific  qualifications.  In  the  course 
of  the  chapter  I  had  occasion  to  quote  a  passage 
from  the  Psychology,^  in  which  Mr.  Spencer  twice 
inadvertently  used  the  phrase  "nervous  shock" 
where  he  meant  "  psychical  shock."  As  his  object 
was  to  keep  the  psychical  phenomena  and  their 
cerebral  concomitants  distinct  in  his  argument, 
this  colloquial  use  of  the  word  "  nervous  "  was 
liable  to  puzzle  the  reader,  and  give  querulous 
critics  a  chance  to  charge  Mr.  Spencer  with  the 
materialistic  implications  which  it  was  his  express 
purpose  to  avoid.  Accordingly,  in  my  quotation 
I  changed  the  word  "nervous"  to  "psychical," 
using  brackets  and  explaining  my  reasons.  On 
showing  all  this  to  Mr.  Spencer,  he  desired  me  to 
add  in  a  footnote  that  he  thoroughly  approved 
the  emendation. 

I  mention  this  incident  because  our  common, 
every-day  speech  abounds  in  expressions  that  have 
a  materialistic  flavour  ;  and  sometimes  in  serious 
writing  an  author's  sheer  intentness  upon  his  main 
argument  may  lead  him  to  overlook  some  familiar 
form  of  expression  which,  when  thrown  into  a  pre- 
cise and  formal  context,  will  strike  the  reader  in  a 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  158.    Cf.  my  Cosmic  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.  p.  444. 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  61 

very  different  way  from  what  the  author  intended. 
I  am  inclined  to  explain  in  this  way  the  passages 
in  "  First  Principles  "  which  are  perhaps  chiefly 
responsible  for  the  charge  of  materialism  that  has 
so  often  and  so  wrongly  been  brought  up  against 
the  doctrine  of  evolution. 

As  regards  the  theological  implications  of  the 
doctrine  of  evolution,  I  have  never  undertaken 
to  speak  for  Mr.  Spencer  ;  on  such  transcendental 
subjects  it  is  quite  enough  if  one  speaks  for  one's 
self.  It  is  told  of  Diogenes  that,  on  listening 
one  day  to  a  sophistical  argument  against  the  pos- 
sibility of  motion,  he  grimly  got  up  out  of  his  tub 
and  walked  across  the  street.  Whether  his  ad- 
versaries were  convinced  or  not,  we  are  not  told. 
Probably  not ;  it  is  but  seldom  that  adversaries 
are  convinced.  So,  when  Professor  Haeckel  de- 
clares that  belief  in  a  "  personal  God  "  and  an 
"  immortal  soul  "  is  incompatible  with  acceptance 
of  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  I  can  only  say,  for  my- 
self —  however  much  or  little  the  personal  experi- 
ence may  be  worth  —  I  find  that  the  beliefs  in  the 
psychical  nature  of  God  and  in  the  immortality  of 
the  human  soul  seem  to  harmonize  infinitely  bet- 
ter with  my  general  system  of  cosmic  philosophy 
than  the  negation  of  these  beliefs.  If  Professor 
Haeckel,  or  any  other  writer,  prefers  a  materialistic 


62  A  Centura/  of  Science 

interpretation,  very  well.  I  neither  quarrel  with 
him  nor  seek  to  convert  him  ;  but  I  do  not  agi-ee 
with  him.  I  do  not  pretend  that  my  opinion  on 
these  matters  is  susceptible  of  scientific  demonstra- 
tion. Neither  is  his.  I  say,  then,  that  his  fifth 
thesis  has  no  business  in  a  series  of  scientific  gen- 
eralizations about  the  doctrine  of  evolution. 

Far  beyond  the  limits  of  what  scientific  methods, 
based  upon  our  brief  terrestrial  ex23erience,  can  de- 
monstrate, there  lies  on  every  side  a  region  with 
regard  to  which  Science  can  only  suggest  questions. 
As  Goethe  so  profoundly  says  :  — 

"  Willst  du  ins  Unendliche  streiten, 

Geh'  nur  im  Endlichen  nach  alien  Seiten."  1 

It  is  of  surpassing  interest  that  the  particular  gen- 
eralization which  has  been  extended  into  a  univer- 
sal formula  of  evolution  should  have  been  the 
generalization  of  the  development  of  an  ovum. 
In  enlarging  the  sphere  of  life  in  such  wise  as  to 
make  the  whole  universe  seem  actuated  by  a  single 
principle  of  life,  we  are  introduced  to  regions  of 
sublime  speculation.  The  doctrine  of  evolution, 
which  affects  our  thought  about  all  things,  brings 
before  us  with  vividness  the  conception  of  an  ever 
present    God,  —  not   an  absentee    God  who  once 

1  "  K  thou  wouldst  press  into  the  infinite,  go  but  to  all  parts 
of  the  finite." 


Scope  and  Purport  of  Evolution  63 

manufactured  a  cosmic  machine  capable  of  run- 
ning itself,  except  for  a  little  jog  or  poke  here  and 
there  in  the  shape  of  a  special  providence.  The 
doctrine  of  evolution  destroys  the  conception  of 
the  world  as  a  machine.  It  makes  God  our  con- 
stant refuge  and  support,  and  Nature  his  true  reve- 
lation ;  and  when  all  its  religious  implications  shall 
have  been  set  forth,  it  will  be  seen  to  be  the  most 
potent  ally  that  Christianity  has  ever  had  in  ele- 
vating mankind. 
March  1890. 


Ill 

EDWARD   LIVINGSTON   YOUMANS  ^ 

In  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  shining 
pages  of  his  "  History  of  the  Spanish  Conquest 
in  America,"  Sir  Arthur  Helps  describes  the  way 
in  which,  through  "  some  fitness  of  the  season, 
whether  in  great  scientific  discoveries  or  in  the 
breaking  into  light  of  some  great  moral  cause, 
the  same  processes  are  going  on  in  many  minds, 
and  it  seems  as  if  they  communicated  with  each 
other  invisibly.  We  may  imagine  that  all  good 
powers  aid  the  '  new  light,'  and  brave  and  wise 
thoughts  about  it  float  aloft  in  the  atmosphere  of 
thought  as  downy  seeds  are  borne  over  the  fruitful 
face  of  the  earth."  ^  The  thinker  who  elaborates 
a  new  system  of  philosophy,  deeper  and  more  com- 
prehensive than  any  yet  known  to  mankind,  though 
he  may  work  in  solitude,  nevertheless  does  not  work 
alone.  The  very  fact  which  makes  his  great  scheme 
of  thought  a  success,  and  not  a  failure,  is  the  fact 

1  An  address  before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association,  March 
23,  1890. 

2  Vol.  iii.  p.  113. 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  65 

that  it  puts  into  definite  and  coherent  shape  the 
ideas  which  many  people  are  more  or  less  vaguely 
and  loosely  entertaining,  and  that  it  carries  to  a 
grand  and  triumphant  conclusion  processes  of  rea- 
soning in  which  many  persons  have  already  begun 
taking  the  earlier  steps.  This  community  in  men- 
tal trend  between  the  immortal  discoverer  and  many 
of  the  brightest  contemporary  minds,  far  from  di- 
minishing the  originality  of  his  work,  constitutes 
the  feature  of  it  which  makes  it  a  permanent  acqui- 
sition for  mankind,  and  distinguishes  it  from  the 
eccentric  philosophies  which  now  and  then  come 
up  to  startle  the  world  for  a  while,  and  are  pre- 
sently discarded  and  forgotten.  The  history  of 
modern  physics  —  as  in  the  case  of  the  correlation 
of  forces  and  the  undulatory  theory  of  light  — 
furnishes  us  with  many  instances  of  wise  thoughts 
floating  like  downy  seeds  in  the  atmosphere  until 
the  moment  has  come  for  them  to  take  root.  And 
so  it  has  been  with  the  greatest  achievement  of 
modern  thinking,  —  the  doctrine  of  evolution. 
Students  and  investigators  in  all  departments, 
alike  in  the  physical  and  in  the  historical  sciences, 
were  fairly  driven  by  the  nature  of  the  phenomena 
before  them  into  some  hypothesis,  more  or  less 
vague,  of  gradual  and  orderly  change  or  develop- 
ment.    The  world  was  ready  and  waiting  for  Her- 


66  A  Century  of  Science 

bert  Spencer's  mighty  work  when  it  came,  and  it 
was  for  that  reason  that  it  was  so  quickly  triimi- 
phant  over  the  old  order  of  thought.  The  victory 
has  been  so  thorough,  swift,  and  decisive  that  it 
will  take  another  generation  to  narrate  the  story 
of  it  so  as  to  do  it  full  justice.  Meanwhile,  peo- 
ple's minds  are  apt  to  be  somewhat  dazed  with  the 
rapidity  and  wholesale  character  of  the  change  ; 
and  nothing  is  more  common  than  to  see  them 
adopting  Mr.  Spencer's  ideas  without  recognizing 
them  as  his  or  knowing  whence  they  got  them. 
As  fast  as  Mr.  Spencer  could  set  forth  his  general- 
izations they  were  taken  hold  of  here  and  there  by 
special  workers,  each  in  his  own  department,  and 
utilized  therein.  His  general  system  was  at  once 
seized,  assimilated,  and  set  forth  with  new  illustra- 
tions by  serious  thinkers  who  were  already  grop- 
ing in  the  regions  of  abstruse  thought  which  the 
master's  vision  pierced  so  clearly.  And  thus  the 
doctrine  of  evolution  has  come  to  be  inseparably 
interfused  with  the  whole  mass  of  thinking  in  our 
day  and  generation.  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that 
people  commonly  entertain  very  clear  ideas  about 
it,  for  clear  ideas  are  not  altogether  common.  I 
suspect  that  a  good  many  people  would  hesitate 
if  asked  to  state  exactly  what  Newton's  law  of  grav- 
itation is. 


Edward  Limngstoii  Youmans  67 

Among  the  men  in  America  whose  minds,  be- 
tween thirty  and  forty  years  ago,  were  feeling  their 
way  toward  some  such  unified  conception  of  nature 
as  Mr.  Spencer  was  about  to  set  forth  in  all  its 
dazzling  glory,  —  among  the  men  who  were  thus 
prepared  to  grasp  the  doctrine  of  evolution  at  once 
and  expound  it  with  fresh  illustrations,  —  the  first 
in  the  field  was  the  man  to  whose  memory  we  have 
met  here  this  evening  to  pay  a  brief  word  of  trib- 
ute. It  is  but  a  little  while  since  that  noble  face 
was  here  with  us,  and  the  tones  of  that  kindly  voice 
were  fraught  with  good  cheer  for  us.  To  most  of 
you,  I  presume,  the  man  Edward  Livingston  You- 
mans is  still  a  familiar  presence.  There  must  be 
many  here  this  evening  who  listened  to  the  tidings 
of  his  death  three  years  ago  with  a  sense  of  personal 
bereavement.  No  one  who  knew  him  is  likely  ever 
to  forget  him.  But  for  those  who  remember  dis- 
tinctly the  man  it  may  not  be  superfluous  to  recount 
the  principal  incidents  of  his  life  and  work.  It  is 
desirable  that  the  story  should  be  set  forth  con- 
cisely, so  as  to  be  remembered ;  for  the  work  was 
like  the  man,  unselfish  and  unobtrusive,  and  in  the 
hurry  and  complication  of  modern  life  such  work 
is  liable  to  be  lost  from  sight,  so  that  people  profit 
by  it  without  knowing  that  it  was  ever  done. 
So  genuinely  modest,  so  utterly  destitute  of  self- 


68  A  Century  of  Science 

regarding  impulses,  was  our  friend,  that  I  believe 
it  would  be  quite  like  him  to  chide  us  for  thus 
drawing  public  attention  to  him,  as  he  would 
think,  with  too  much  emphasis.  But  such  mild 
reproof  it  is  right  that  we  should  disregard ;  for 
the  memory  of  a  life  so  beautiful  and  useful  is  a 
precious  possession  of  which  mankind  ought  not  to 
be  deprived. 

Edward  Livingston  Youmans  was  born  in  the 
town  of  Coeymans,  Albany  County,  N.  Y.,  on  the 
3d  of  June,  1821.  From  his  father  and  mother, 
both  of  whom  survived  him,  he  inherited  strong 
traits  of  character  as  well  as  an  immense  fund 
of  vital  energy,  such  that  the  failure  of  health  a 
few  years  ago  seemed  (to  me,  at  least)  surpris- 
ing. His  father,  Vincent  Youmans,  was  a  man  of 
independent  character,  strong  convictions,  and  per- 
fect moral  courage,  with  a  quick  and  ready  tongue, 
in  the  use  of  which  earnestness  and  frankness  per- 
haps sometimes  prevailed  over  prudence.  The 
mother,  Catherine  Scofield,  was  notable  for  bal- 
ance of  judgment,  prudence,  and  tact.  The 
mother's  grandfather  was  Irish  ;  and  while  I  very 
much  doubt  the  soundness  of  the  generalizations 
we  are  so  prone  to  make  about  race  characteristics, 
I  cannot  but  feel  that  for  the  impulsive — one  had 
almost  said  explosive  —  warmth  of  sympathy,  the 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  69 

enchanting  grace  and  vivacity  of  manner,  in  Ed- 
ward Youmans,  this  strain  of  Irish  blood  may 
have  been  to  some  extent  accountable.  Both  father 
and  mother  belonged  to  the  old  Puritan  stock  of 
New  England,  and  the  father's  ancestry  was  doubt- 
less purely  English.  Nothing  could  be  more  hon- 
ourably or  characteristically  English  than  the  name. 
In  the  old  feudal  society,  the  yeoman^  like  the 
franklin^  was  the  small  freeholder,  owning  a  mod- 
est estate,  yet  holding  it  by  no  servile  tenure ;  a 
man  of  the  common  people,  yet  no  churl ;  a  mem- 
ber of  the  state  who  "  knew  his  rights,  and  know- 
ing dared  maintain."  Few  indeed  were  the  nooks 
and  corners  outside  of  merry  England  where  such 
men  flourished  as  the  yeomen  and  franklins  who 
founded  democratic  New  England.  It  has  often 
been  remarked  how  the  most  illustrious  of  Frank- 
lins exemplified  the  typical  virtues  of  his  class. 
There  was  much  that  was  similar  in  the  tempera- 
ment and  disposition  of  Edward  Youmans,  —  the 
sagacity  and  penetration,  the  broad  common  sense, 
the  earnest  purpose  veiled  but  not  hidden  by  the 
blithe  humour,  the  devotion  to  ends  of  wide  prac- 
tical value,  the  habit  of  making  in  the  best  sense 
the  most  out  of  life. 

When  Edward  was  but  six  months  old,  his  par- 
ents moved  to  Greenfield,  near  Saratoga  Springs. 


70  A  Century  of  Science 

With  a  comfortable  house  and  three  acres  of  land, 
his  father  kept  a  wagon  shop  and  smithy.  In 
those  days,  while  it  was  hard  work  to  wring  a  sub- 
sistence out  of  the  soil  or  to  prosper  upon  any  of 
the  vocations  which  rural  life  permitted,  there  was 
doubtless  more  independence  of  character  and  real 
thriftiness  than  in  our  time,  when  cities  and  tariffs 
have  so  sapped  the  strength  of  the  farming  coun- 
try. In  the  family  of  Vincent  Youmans,  though 
rigid  economy  was  practised,  books  were  reckoned 
to  a  certain  extent  among  the  necessaries  of  life, 
and  the  house  was  one  in  which  neighbours  were 
fond  of  gathering  to  discuss  questions  of  politics  or 
theology,  social  reform  or  improvements  in  agri- 
culture. On  all  such  questions  Vincent  Youmans 
was  apt  to  have  ideas  of  his  own  ;  he  talked  with 
enthusiasm,  and  was  also  ready  to  listen ;  and  he 
evidently  supplied  an  intellectual  stimulus  to  the 
whole  community.  For  a  boy  of  bright  and  inquis- 
itive mind,  listening  to  such  talk  is  no  mean  source 
of  education.  It  often  goes  touch  further  than 
the  reading  of  books.  From  an  early  age  Edward 
Youmans  seems  to  have  appropriated  all  such 
means  of  instruction.  He  had  that  insatiable 
thirst  for  knowledge  which  is  one  of  God's  best 
gifts  to  man ;  for  he  who  is  born  with  this  appetite 
must  needs  be  grievously  iU  made  in  other  respects 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  71 

if  it  does  not  constrain  him  to  lead  a  happy  and 
useful  life. 

After  ten  years  at  Greenfield  the  family  moved 
to  a  farm  at  Milton,  some  two  miles  distant.  Un- 
til his  sixteenth  year  Edward  helped  his  father  at 
farm  work  in  the  summer,  and  attended  the  district 
school  in  winter.  It  was  his  good  fortune  at  that 
time  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  teacher  who  had  a 
genius  for  teaching,  —  a  man  who  in  those  days  of 
rote-learning  did  not  care  to  have  things  learned 
by  heart,  but  sought  to  stimulate  the  thinking 
powers  of  his  pupils,  and  who  in  that  age  of  canes 
and  ferules  never  found  it  necessary  to  use  such 
means  of  discipline,  because  the  fear  of  displeas- 
ing him  was  of  itself  all-sufficient.  Experience  of 
the  methods  of  such  a  man  was  enough  to  sharpen 
one's  disgust  for  the  excessive  mechanism,  the  rigid 
and  stupid  manner  of  teaching,  which  characterize 
the  ordinary  school.  In  after  years  Youmans 
used  to  say  that  "  Uncle  Good  "  —  as  this  admi- 
rable pedagogue  was  caUed  —  first  taught  him  what 
his  mind  was  for.  Through  intercourse  and  train- 
ing of  this  sort  he  learned  to  doubt,  to  test  the 
soundness  of  opinions,  to  make  original  inquiries, 
and  to  find  and  follow  clues. 

But  even  the  best  of  teachers  can  effect  but 
little  unless  he  finds  a  mind  ready  of  itseK  to  take 


72  A  Century  of  Science 

the  initiative.  It  is  doubtful  if  men  of  eminent 
ability  are  ever  made  so  by  schooling.  The  school 
offers  opportunities,  but  in  such  men  the  tendency 
to  the  initiative  is  so  strong  that  if  opportunities 
are  not  offered  they  will  somehow  contrive  to 
create  them.  When  Edward  Youmans  was  about 
thirteen  years  old  he  persuaded  his  father  to  buy 
him  a  copy  of  Comstock's  Natural  Philosophy. 
This  book  he  studied  at  home  by  himself,  and  re- 
peated many  of  the  experiments  with  apparatus  of 
his  own  contriving.  When  he  made  a  centrifugal 
water  wheel,  and  explained  to  the  men  and  boys 
of  the  neighbourhood  the  principle  of  its  revolution 
in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  of  the  stream  which 
moved  it,  we  may  regard  it  as  his  earliest  attempt 
at  giving  scientific  lectures.  It  was  natural  that 
one  who  had  become  interested  in  physics  should 
wish  to  study  chemistry.  The  teacher  (who  was 
not  "  Uncle  Good  "  )  had  never  so  much  as  laid 
eyes  on  a  textbook  of  chemistry ;  but  Edward 
was  not  to  be  daunted  by  such  trifles.  A  copy  of 
Comstock's  manual  was  procured,  another  pupil 
was  found  willing  to  join  in  the  study,  and  this 
class  of  two  proceeded  to  learn  -what  they  could 
from  reading  the  book,  while  the  teacher  asked 
them  the  printed  questions,  —  those  questions  the 
mere  existence  of   which  in  textbooks  is  apt    to 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  73 

show  what  a  low  view  publishers  take  of  the  aver- 
age intelligence  of  teachers  !  It  was  not  a  very 
hopeful  way  of  studying  such  a  subject  as  chem- 
istry ;  but  doubtless  the  time  was  not  wasted,  and 
the  foundations  for  a  future  knowledge  of  chemis- 
try were  laid.  The  experience  of  farm  work  which 
accompanied  these  studies  explains  the  interest 
which  in  later  years  Mr.  Youmans  felt  in  agricul- 
tural chemistry.  He  came  to  realize  how  crude 
and  primitive  are  our  methods  of  making  the  earth 
yield  its  produce,  and  it  was  his  opinion  that 
when  men  have  once  learned  how  to  conduct  agri- 
culture upon  sound  scientific  principles,  farming 
will  become  at  once  the  most  wholesome  and  the 
most  attractive  form  of  human  industry. 

Along  with  the  elementary  studies  in  science 
there  went  a  great  deal  of  miscellaneous  reading, 
mostly,  it  would  appear,  of  good  solid  books.  Ap- 
parently there  was  at  that  time  no  study  of  lan- 
guages, ancient  or  modern.  At  the  age  of  seven- 
teen the  young  man  had  shown  so  much  promise 
that  it  was  decided  he  should  study  law,  and  he 
had  already  entered  upon  a  more  extensive  course 
of  preparation  in  an  academy  in  Saratoga  County 
when  the  event  occurred  which  changed  the  whole 
course  of  his  life.  He  had  been  naturally  gifted 
with  keen  and  accurate  vision,  was  a  good  sports- 


74  A  Century  of  Science 

man  and  an  excellent  shot  with  a  rifle ;  but  at 
about  the  age  of  thirteen  there  had  come  an  attack 
of  ophthalmia,  which  left  the  eyes  weak  and  sensi- 
tive. Perpetual  reading  probably  increased  the 
difficulty  and  hindered  complete  recovery.  At  the 
age  of  seventeen  violent  inflammation  set  in  ; 
the  sight  in  one  eye  was  completely  lost,  while  in 
the  other  it  grew  so  dim  as  to  be  of  little  avail. 
Sometimes  he  would  be  just  able  to  find  his  way 
about  the  streets,  at  other  times  the  blindness  was 
almost  total;  and  this  state  of  things  lasted  for 
nearly  thirteen  years. 

This  dreadful  calamity  seemed  to  make  it  im- 
possible to  continue  any  systematic  course  of  study, 
and  the  outlook  for  satisfactory  work  of  any  sort 
was  extremely  discouraging.  The  first  necessity 
was  medical  assistance,  and  in  quest  of  this  Mr. 
Youmans  came  in  the  autumn  of  1839  to  New 
York,  where  for  the  most  part  he  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life.  Until  1851  he  was  under  the 
care  of  an  oculist.  Under  such  circumstances,  if 
a  man  of  eager  energy  and  boundless  intellectual 
craving  were  to  be  overwhelmed  with  despondency, 
we  could  not  caU  it  strange.  If  he  were  to  be- 
come dependent  upon  friends  for  the  means  of  sup- 
port, it  would  be  ungracious,  if  not  unjust,  to  blame 
him.     But  Edward  Youmans  was  not  made  of  the 


Edward  Livingston  Ybumans  75 

stuff  that  acquiesces  in  defeat.  He  rose  superior 
to  calamity ;  he  won  the  means  of  livelihood,  and 
in  darkness  entered  upon  the  path  to  an  enviable 
fame.  At  first  he  had  to  resign  himself  to  spend- 
ing weary  weeks  over  tasks  that  with  sound  eye- 
sight could  have  been  dispatched  in  as  many  days. 
He  invented  some  kind  of  writing  machine,  which 
held  his  paper  firmly,  and  enabled  his  pen  to  fol- 
low straight  lines  at  proper  distances  apart.  Long 
practice  of  this  sort  gave  his  handwriting  a  pe- 
culiar character  which  it  retained  in  later  years. 
When  I  first  saw  it  in  1863  it  seemed  almost  un- 
decipherable ;  but  that  was  far  from  being  the 
case,  and  after  I  had  grown  used  to  it  I  found  it 
but  little  less  legible  than  the  most  beautiful  chiro- 
graphy.  The  strokes,  gnarled  and  jagged  as  they 
were,  had  a  method  in  their  madness,  and  every 
pithy  sentence  went  straight  as  an  arrow  to  its 
mark. 

While  conquering  these  physical  obstacles  Mr. 
Youmans  began  writing  for  the  press,  and  grad- 
ually entered  into  relations  with  leading  news- 
papers which  became  more  and  more  important 
and  useful  as  years  went  on.  He  became  ac- 
quainted with  Horace  Greeley,  William  Henry 
Channing,  and  other  gentlemen  who  were  inter- 
ested  in   social   reforms.      His   sympathies   were 


76  A  Century  of  Science 

strongly  enlisted  with  the  little  party  of  abolition- 
ists, then  held  in  such  scornful  disfavour  by  all 
other  parties.  He  was  also  interested  in  the  party 
of  temperance,  which,  as  he  and  others  were  after- 
ward to  learn,  compounded  for  its  essential  up- 
rightness of  purpose  by  indulging  in  very  gross 
intemperance  of  speech  and  action.  The  disin- 
terestedness which  always  characterized  him  was 
illustrated  by  his  writing  many  articles  for  a  tem- 
perance paper  which  could  not  afford  to  pay  its 
contributors,  although  he  was  struggling  with  such 
disadvantages  in  earning  his  own  livelihood  and 
carrying  on  his  scientific  studies.  Those  were  days 
when  leading  reformers  believed  that  by  some  cun- 
ningly contrived  alteration  of  social  arrangements 
our  human  nature,  with  all  its  inheritance  from 
countless  ages  of  brutality,  can  somehow  be  made 
over  all  in  a  moment,  just  as  one  would  go  to  work 
with  masons  and  carpenters  and  revamp  a  house. 
There  are  many  good  people  who  still  labour  under 
such  a  delusion. 

Though  Mr.  Youmans  was  brought  into  frequent 
contact  with  reformers  of  this  sort,  it  does  not  seem 
to  me  that  his  mind  was  ever  deeply  impressed  with 
such  ways  of  thinking.  Science  is  teaching  us  that 
the  method  of  evolution  is  that  mill  of  God,  of 
which  we  have  heard,  which,  while  it  grinds  with 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  77 

infinite  efficacy,  yet  grinds  with  wearisome  slow- 
ness. It  was  Mr.  Darwin's  discovery  of  natural 
selection  which  first  brought  this  truth  home  to  us ; 
but  Sir  Charles  Lyell  had  in  1830  shown  how 
enormous  effects  are  wrought  by  the  cumulative 
action  of  slight  and  unobtrusive  causes,  and  this 
had  much  to  do  with  turning  men's  minds  toward 
some  conception  of  evolution.  It  was  about  1847 
that  Mr.  Youmans  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
work  of  geologists,  as  well  as  in  the  Nebular  Theory, 
to  which  recent  discoveries  were  adding  fresh  con- 
firmation. Some  time  before  this  he  had  read 
that  famous  book  "  Vestiges  of  Creation,"  and 
although  Professor  Agassiz  truly  declared  that  it 
was  an  unscientific  book,  crammed  with  antiquated 
and  exploded  fancies,  I  suspect  that  Mr.  Youmans 
felt  that  amid  all  the  chaff  there  was  a  very  sound 
and  sturdy  kernel  of  truth. 

Among  the  books  which  Mr.  Yoimians  projected 
at  this  time,  the  first  was  a  compendious  history  of 
progress  in  discovery  and  invention ;  but,  after 
he  had  made  extensive  preparations,  a  book  was 
published  so  similar  in  scope  and  treatment  that 
he  abandoned  the  undertaking.  Another  work 
was  a  treatise  on  arithmetic,  on  a  new  and  philo- 
sophical plan ;  but,  when  this  was  approaching  com- 
pletion, he  again  found  himself  anticipated,  this 


78  A  Century  of  Science 

time  by  the  book  of  Horace  Mann.  This  was  dis- 
couraging enough,  but  a  third  venture  resulted  in 
a  brilliant  success.  We  have  observed  the  eager- 
ness with  which,  as  a  schoolboy,  Mr.  Youmans 
entered  upon  the  study  of  chemistry.  His  interest 
in  this  science  grew  with  years,  and  he  devoted 
himself  to  it  so  far  as  was  practicable.  For  a 
blind  man  to  carry  on  the  study  of  a  science  which 
is  preeminently  one  of  observation  and  experiment 
might  seem  hopeless.  It  was  at  any  rate  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  see  with  the  eyes  of  others,  if 
not  with  his  own.  Here  the  assistance  rendered 
by  his  sister  was  invaluable.  During  most  of  this 
period  she  served  as  amanuensis  and  reader  for 
him.  But,  more  than  this,  she  kept  up  for  some 
time  a  course  of  laboratory  work,  the  results  of 
which  were  minutely  described  to  her  brother  and 
discussed  with  him  in  the  evenings.  The  lectures 
of  Dr.  John  William  Draper  on  chemistry  were 
also  thoroughly  discussed  and  pondered. 

The  conditions  under  which  Mr.  Youmans  worked 
made  it  necessary  for  him  to  consider  every  point 
with  the  extreme  deliberation  involved  in  framing 
distinct  mental  images  of  things  and  processes 
which  he  could  not  watch  with  the  eye.  It  was 
hard  discipline,  but  he  doubtless  profited  from  it. 
Nature  had  endowed  him  with  an  unusually  clear 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  79 

head,  but  this  enforced  method  must  have  made  it 
still  clearer.  One  of  the  most  notable  qualities 
of  his  mind  was  the  absolute  luminousness  with 
which  he  saw  things  and  the  relations  among 
things.  It  was  this  quality  that  made  him  so  suc- 
cessful as  an  expounder  of  scientific  truths.  In 
the  course  of  his  pondering  oyer  chemical  facts 
which  he  was  obliged  to  take  at  second  hand,  it 
occurred  to  him  that  most  of  the  pupils  in  common 
schools  who  studied  chemistry  were  practically  no 
better  off.  It  was  easy  enough  for  schools  to  buy 
textbooks,  but  difficult  for  them  to  provide  labo- 
ratories and  apparatus ;  and  it  was  much  easier 
withal  to  find  teachers  who  could  ask  questions  out 
of  a  book  than  those  who  could  use  apparatus  if 
provided.  It  was  customary,  therefore,  to  learn 
chemistry  by  rote  ;  or,  in  other  words,  pupils'  heads 
were  crammed  with  unintelligible  statements  about 
things  with  queer  names,  —  such  as  manganese  or 
tellurium,  —  which  they  had  never  seen,  and  would 
not  know  if  they  were  to  see  them.  It  occurred  to 
Mr.  Youmans  that  if  visible  processes  could  not 
be  brought  before  pupils,  at  any  rate  the  funda^ 
mental  conceptions  of  chemistry  might  be  made 
clear  by  means  of  diagrams.  He  began  devising 
diagrams  in  different  colours,  to  illustrate  the  diver- 
sity in  the  atomic  weights  of  the  principal  elements. 


80  A  Century  of  Science 

and  the  composition  o£  the  more  familiar  com- 
pounds. At  length,  by  uniting  his  diagrams,  he 
obtained  a  comprehensive  chart  exhibiting  the  out- 
lines of  the  whole  scheme  of  chemical  combination 
according  to  the  binary  or  dualist  theory  then  in 
vogue.  This  chart,  when  published,  was  a  great 
success.  It  not  only  facilitated  the  acquirement 
of  clear  ideas,  but  it  was  suggestive  of  new  ideas. 
It  proved  very  popular,  and  kept  the  field  until  the 
binary  theory  was  overthrown  by  the  modern  doc- 
trine of  substitution,  which  does  not  lend  itself  so 
readily  to  graphic  treatment. 

The  success  of  the  chemical  chart  led  to  the  writ- 
ing of  a  textbook  of  chemistry.  This  laborious 
work  was  completed  in  1851,  when  Mr.  Youmans 
was  thirty  years  old.  Professor  Silliman  was  then 
regarded  as  one  of  our  foremost  authorities  in  chem- 
istry, but  it  was  at  once  remarked  of  the  new  book 
that  it  showed  quite  as  thorough  a  mastery  of  the 
whole  subject  of  chemical  combination  as  Silli- 
man's.  It  was  a  textbook  of  a  kind  far  less  com- 
mon then  than  now.  There  was  nothing  dry  about 
it.  The  subject  was  presented  with  beautiful  clear- 
ness, in  a  most  attractive  style.  There  was  a  firm 
grasp  of  the  philosophical  principles  underlying 
chemical  phenomena,  and  the  meaning  and  func- 
tions of  the  science  were  set  forth  in  such  a  way 


Edward  Livingston  Youmaris  81 

as  to  charm  the  student  and  make  him  wish  for 
more.  The  book  had  an  immediate  and  signal 
success ;  in  after  years  it  was  twice  rewritten  by 
the  author,  to  accommodate  it  to  the  rapid  advances 
made  by  the  science,  and  it  is  still  one  of  our  best 
textbooks  of  chemistry.  It  has  had  a  sale  of  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  copies. 

The  publication  of  this  book  at  once  established 
its  author's  reputation  as  a  scientific  writer,  and  in 
another  way  it  marked  an  era  in  his  life.  The 
long,  distressing  period  of  darkness  now  came  to 
an  end.  Sight  was  so  far  recovered  in  one  eye 
that  it  became  possible  to  go  about  freely,  to  read, 
to  recognize  friends,  to  travel,  and  make  much  of 
life.  I  am  told  that  his  face  had  acquired  an  ex- 
pression characteristic  of  the  blind,  but  that  expres- 
sion was  afterward  completely  lost.  When  I  knew 
him  it  would  never  have  occurred  to  me  that  his 
sight  was  imperfect,  except  perhaps  as  regards 
length  of  range. 

Youmans'  career  as  a  scientific  lecturer  now 
began.  His  first  lecture  was  the  beginning  of 
a  series  on  the  relations  of  organic  life  to  the 
atmosphere.  It  was  illustrated  with  chemical  ap- 
paratus, and  was  given  in  a  private  room  in  New 
York  to  an  audience  which  filled  the  room.  Prob- 
ably no  lecturer  ever  faced  his  first  audience  with- 


82  A  Century  of  Science 

out  some  trepidation,  and  Youmans  had  not  the 
mainstay  and  refuge  afforded  by  a  manuscript,  for 
his  sight  was  never  good  enough  to  make  such  an 
aid  available  for  his  lectures.  At  first  the  right 
words  were  slow  in  finding  their  way  to  those  ready 
lips,  and  his  friends  were  beginning  to  grow  anx- 
ious, when  all  at  once  a  happy  accident  broke  the 
spell.  He  was  remarking  upon  the  characteristic 
inertness  of  nitrogen,  and  pointing  to  a  jar  of  that 
gas  on  the  table  before  him,  when  some  fidgety 
movement  of  his  knocked  the  jar  off  the  table. 
He  improved  the  occasion  with  one  of  his  quaint 
bons  mots,  and,  as  there  is  nothing  that  greases 
the  wheels  of  life  like  a  laugh,  the  lecture  went  on 
to  a  successful  close. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  a  busy  career  of 
seventeen  years  of  lecturing,  ending  in  1868  ;  and 
I  believe  it  is  safe  to  say  that  few  things  were  done 
in  all  those  years  of  more  vital  and  lasting  benefit 
to  the  American  people  than  this  broadcast  sowing 
of  the  seeds  of  scientific  thought  in  the  lectures  of 
Edward  Youmans.  They  came  just  at  the  time 
when  the  world  was  ripe  for  the  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution, when  all  the  wondrous  significance  of  the 
trend  of  scientific  discovery  since  Newton's  time 
was  beginning  to  burst  upon  men's  minds.  The 
work  of  Lyell  in  geology,  followed  at  length  in 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  83 

1859  by  the  Darwinian  theory;  the  doctrine  of  the 
correlation  of  forces  and  the  consequent  unity  of 
nature  ;  the  extension  and  reformation  of  chemical 
theory;  the  simultaneous  advance  made  in  socio- 
logical inquiry,  and  in  the  conception  of  the  true 
aims  and  proper  methods  of  education,  —  all  this 
made  the  period  a  most  fruitful  one  for  the  pe- 
cidiar  work  of  such  a  teacher  as  Youmans.  The 
intellectual  atmosphere  was  charged  with  concep- 
tions of  evolution.  Youmans  had  arrived  at  such 
conceptions  in  the  course  of  his  study  of  the  sepa- 
rate lines  of  scientific  speculation  which  were  now 
about  to  be  summed  up  and  organized  by  Her- 
bert Spencer  into  that  system  of  philosophy  which 
marks  the  highest  point  to  which  the  progressive 
intelligence  of  mankind  has  yet  attained.  In  the 
field  of  scientific  generalization  upon  this  great 
scale,  Youmans  was  not  an  originator ;  but  his 
broadly  sympathetic  and  luminous  mind  moved 
on  a  plane  so  near  to  that  of  the  originators 
that  he  seized  at  once  upon  the  grand  scheme  of 
thought  as  it  was  developed,  made  it  his  own,  and 
brought  to  its  interpretation  and  diffusion  such  a 
happy  combination  of  qualities  as  one  seldom  meets 
with.  The  ordinary  popularizer  of  great  and  novel 
truths  is  a  man  who  comprehends  them  but  par- 
tially, and  illustrates  them  in  a  lame  and  frag- 


84  A  Century  of  Science 

mentary  way.  But  it  was  the  peculiarity  of  You- 
mans  that  while  on  the  one  hand  he  could  grasp 
the  newest  scientific  thought  so  surely  and  firmly 
that  he  seemed  to  have  entered  into  the  innermost 
mind  of  its  author,  on  the  other  hand  he  could 
speak  to  the  general  public  in  an  extremely  con- 
vincing and  stimulating  way.  This  was  the  secret 
of  his  power,  and  there  can  be  no  question  that 
his  influence  in  educating  the  American  people 
to  receive  the  doctrine  of  evolution  was  great  and 
widespread. 

The  years  when  Youmans  was  travelling  and  lec- 
turing were  the  years  when  the  old  lyceum  system 
of  popular  lectures  was  still  in  its  vigour.  The 
kind  of  life  led  by  the  energetic  lecturer  in  those 
days  was  not  that  of  a  Sybarite,  as  may  be  seen 
from  a  passage  in  one  of  his  letters :  "I  lectured 
in  Sandusky,  and  had  to  get  up  at  five  o'clock  to 
reach  Elyria ;  I  had  had  but  very  little  sleep. 
To  get  from  Elyria  to  Pittsburg  I  must  take  the 
five  o'clock  morning  train,  and  the  hotel  darky 
said  he  would  try  to  waken  me.  I  knew  what 
that  meant,  and  so  did  not  get  a  single  wink  of 
sleep  that  night.  Rode  all  day  to  Pittsburg,  and 
had  to  lecture  in  the  great  Academy  of  Music  over 
footlights.  .  .  .  The  train  that  left  for  ZanesviUe 
departed  at  two  in  the  morning.     I  had  been  as- 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  85 

sured  a  hundred  times  (for  I  asked  everybody  I 
met)  that  I  could  get  a  sleeping-car  to  Zanesville, 
and  when  I  was  all  ready  to  start  I  was  informed 
that  this  morning  there  was  no  sleeping-car.  By 
the  time  I  reached  here  I  was  pretty  completely 
used  up." 

Such  a  fatiguing  life,  however,  has  its  compensa- 
tions. It  brings  the  lecturer  into  friendly  contact 
with  the  brightest  minds  among  his  fellow  country- 
men in  many  and  many  places,  and  enlarges  his 
sphere  of  influence  in  a  way  that  is  not  easy  to 
estimate.  Clearly,  an  earnest  lecturer,  of  com- 
manding intelligence  and  charming  manner,  with 
a  great  subject  to  teach,  must  have  an  opportunity 
for  sowing  seeds  that  will  presently  ripen  in  a 
change  of  opinion  or  sentiment,  in  an  altered  way 
of  looking  at  things  on  the  part  of  whole  communi- 
ties. No  lecturer  has  ever  had  a  better  opportunity 
of  this  sort  than  Edward  Youmans,  and  none  ever 
made  a  better  use  of  his  opportunity.  His  gifts 
as  a  talker  were  of  the  highest  order.  The  com- 
monest and  plainest  story,  as  told  by  Edward 
Youmans,  had  aU  the  breathless  interest  of  the 
most  thrilling  romance.  Absolutely  unconscious 
of  himseK,  simple,  straightforward,  and  vehement, 
wrapped  up  in  his  subject,  the  very  embodiment 
of  faith  and  enthusiasm,  of  heartiness  and  good 


86  A  Century  of  Science 

cheer,  it  was  delightful  to  hear  him.  And  when 
we  join  with  all  this  his  unfailing  common  sense, 
his  broad  and  kindly  view  of  men  and  things,  and 
the  delicious  humour  that  kept  flashing  out  in 
quaint,  pithy  phrases  such  as  no  other  man  would 
have  thought  of,  and  such  as  are  the  despair  of 
any  one  trjdng  to  remember  and  quote  them,  we  can 
seem  to  imagine  what  a  power  he  must  have  been 
with  his  lectures. 

When  such  a  man  goes  about  for  seventeen 
years,  teaching  scientific  truths  for  which  the  world 
is  ripe,  we  may  be  sure  that  his  work  is  great, 
albeit  we  have  no  standard  whereby  we  can  exactly 
measure  it.  In  hundreds  of  little  towns  with  queer 
names  did  this  strong  personality  appear  and  make 
its  way  and  leave  its  effects  in  the  shape  of  new 
thoughts,  new  questions,  and  enlarged  hospitality 
of  mind,  among  the  inhabitants.  The  results  of 
all  this  are  surely  visible  to-day.  In  no  part  of  the 
English  world  has  Herbert  Spencer's  philosophy 
met  with  such  a  general  and  cordial  reception  as  in 
the  United  States.  This  may  no  doubt  be  largely 
explained  by  a  reference  to  general  causes ;  but  as 
it  is  almost  always  necessary,  along  with  our  gen- 
eral causes,  to  take  into  the  account  some  personal 
influence,  so  it  is  in  this  case.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  among  the  agencies  which  during  the  past 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  87 

fifty  years  have  so  remarkably  broadened  the  mind 
of  the  American  people,  very  few  have  been  more 
potent  than  the  gentle  and  subtle  but  pervasive 
work  done  by  Edward  Youmans  with  his  lectures, 
and  to  this  has  been  largely  due  the  hospitable 
reception  of  Herbert  Spencer's  ideas. 

It  was  in  1856  that  Youmans  fell  in  with  a 
review  of  "  Spencer's  Principles  of  Psychology," 
by  Dr.  Morell,  in  "The  Medico-Chirurgical  Ke- 
view."  This  paper  impressed  him  so  deeply  that 
he  at  once  sent  to  London  for  a  copy  of  the  book, 
which  had  been  published  in  the  preceding  year. 
It  will  be  observed  that  this  was  four  years  before 
the  Darwinian  theory  was  announced  in  the  first 
edition  of  the  "  Origin  of  Species."  ^ 

After  struggling  for  a  while  with  the  weighty 
problems  of  this  book,  Youmans  saw  that  the  theory 
expounded  in  it  was  a  long  stride  in  the  direction 
of  a  general  theory  of  evolution.  His  interest  in 
this  subject  received  a  new  and  fresh  stimulus. 
He  read  "  Social  Statics,"  and  began  to  recognize 
Spencer's  hand  in  the  anonymous  articles  in  the 
quarterHes  in  which  he  was  then  announcing  and 
illustrating  various  portions  or  segments  of  his 
newly  discovered  law  of  evolution.  One  evening 
in  February,  1860,  as  Youmans  was  calling  at  a 

1  See  above,  p.  49. 


88  A  Century  of  /Science 

friend's  house  in  Brooklyn,  the  Rev.  Samuel  John- 
son, of  Salem,  handed  him  the  famous  prospectus 
of  the  great  series  of  philosophical  works  which 
Spencer  proposed  to  issue  by  subscription.  Mr. 
Johnson  had  obtained  this  from  Edward  Silsbee, 
who  was  one  of  the  very  first  Americans  to  become 
interested  in  Spencer.  The  very  next  day  You- 
mans  wrote  a  letter  to  Spencer,  offering  his  aid  in 
procuring  American  subscriptions  and  otherwise 
facihtating  the  enterprise  by  every  means  in  his 
power.  With  this  letter  and  Spencer's  cordial 
reply  began  the  lifelong  friendship  between  the 
two  men.  It  was  in  that  same  month  that  I  first 
became  aware  of  Spencer's  existence,  through  a 
single  paragraph  quoted  from  him  by  Lewes,  and  in 
that  paragraph  there  was  immense  fascination.  I 
had  been  steeping  myself  in  the  literature  of  mod- 
ern philosophy,  starting  with  Bacon  and  Descartes, 
and  was  then  studying  Comte's  "  Philosophic  Posi- 
tive," which  interested  me  as  suggesting  that  the 
special  doctrines  of  the  several  sciences  might  be 
organized  into  a  general  body  of  doctrine  of  uni- 
versal significance.  Comte's  work  was  crude  and 
often  wildly  absurd,  but  there  was  much  in  it  that 
was  very  suggestive.  In  May,  1860,  in  the  Old 
Comer  Bookstore  in  Boston,  I  fell  upon  a  copy  of 
that  same  prospectus  of  Spencer's  works,  and  read 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  89 

it  with  exulting  delight ;  for  clearly  there  was  to  be 
such  an  organization  of  scientific  doctrine  as  the 
world  was  waiting  for.  It  appeared  that  there 
was  some  talk  of  Ticknor  &  Fields  undertaking  to 
conduct  the  series  in  case  subscriptions  enough 
should  be  received.  Spencer  preferred  to  have  his 
works  appear  in  Boston ;  but  when  in  the  course 
of  1860  his  book  on  "  Education  "  was  offered  to 
Ticknor  &  Fields,  they  declined  to  publish  it,  — 
which  was,  of  course,  a  grave  mistake  from  the 
business  point  of  view.  Youmans,  however,  was 
not  sorry  for  this,  for  it  gave  him  the  opportunity 
to  place  Spencer's  books  where  he  could  do  most 
to  forward  their  success. 

Some  years  before,  during  his  blindness,  his  sis- 
ter had  led  him  one  day  into  the  store  of  Messrs. 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.  in  quest  of  a  book,  and  Mr. 
William  Appleton  had  become  warmly  interested 
in  him.  I  believe  the  firm  now  look  back  to  this 
chance  visit  as  one  of  the  most  auspicious  events 
in  their  annals.  Youmans  became  by  degrees'  a 
kind  of  adviser  as  regarded  matters  of  publica- 
tion, and  it  was  largely  through  his  far-sighted 
advice  that  the  Appletons  entered  upon  the  publi- 
cation of  such  books  as  those  of  Buckle,  Darwin, 
Huxley,  Tyndall,  Haeckel,  and  others  of  like 
character ;  always  paying  a  royalty  to  the  authors, 


90  A  Century  of  Science 

the  same  as  to  American  authors,  in  spite  of  the 
absence  of  an  international  copyright  law.  As 
publishers  of  books  of  this  sort  the  Appletons  have 
come  to  be  preeminent.  It  is  obvious  enough 
nowadays  that  such  books  are  profitable  from  a 
business  point  of  view ;  but  thirty  years  and  more 
ago  this  was  by  no  means  obvious.  We  Ameri- 
cans were  terribly  provincial.  Eeprints  of  English 
books  and  translations  from  French  and  German 
were  sadly  behind  the  times.  In  the  Connecticut 
town  where  I  lived,  people  would  begin  to  wake 
up  to  the  existence  of  some  great  European  book 
or  system  of  thought  after  it  had  been  before  the 
world  anywhere  from  a  dozen  to  fifty  years.  In 
those  days,  therefore,  it  required  some  boldness  to 
undertake  the  reprinting  of  new  scientific  books; 
and  none  have  recognized  more  freely  than  the 
Appletons  the  importance  of  the  part  played  by 
Youmans  in  this  matter.  His  work  as  adviser  to 
a  great  publishing  house  and  his  work  as  lecturer 
reinforced  each  other,  and  thus  his  capacity  for 
usefulness  was  much  increased. 

When  Spencer's  book  on  "  Education "  failed 
to  find  favour  in  Boston  the  Appletons  took  it, 
and  thus  presently  secured  the  management  of  the 
philosophical  series.  This  brought  Youmans  into 
permanent  relations  with  Spencer  and  his  work. 


Edward  Limngston  Youmans  91 

In  1861  Youmans  was  married,  and  in  the  course 
of  the  following  year  made  a  journey  in  Europe 
with  his  wife.  It  was  now  that  he  became  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  Spencer,  and  found  him 
quite  as  interesting  and  admirable  as  his  books. 
Friendships  were  also  begun  with  Huxley  and 
other  foremost  men  of  science.  From  more  than 
one  of  these  men  I  have  heard  the  warmest  expres- 
sions of  personal  affection  for  Youmans,  and  of 
keen  appreciation  of  the  aid  that  they  have  ob- 
tained in  innumerable  ways  from  his  intelligent 
and  enthusiastic  sympathy.  But  no  one  else  got 
so  large  a  measure  of  this  support  as  Spencer.  As 
fast  as  his  books  were  republished  Youmans  wrote 
reviews  of  them,  and  by  no  means  in  the  usual 
perfunctory  way;  his  reviews  and  notices  were 
turned  out  by  the  score,  and  scattered  about  in 
the  magazines  and  newspapers  where  they  would 
do  the  most  good.  Whenever  he  found  another 
writer  who  could  be  pressed  into  the  service,  he 
would  give  him  Spencer's  books,  kindle  him  with  a 
spark  from  his  own  magnificent  enthusiasm,  and 
set  him  to  writing  for  the  press.  The  most  inde- 
fatigable vender  of  wares  was  never  more  ruthlessly 
persistent  in  advertising  for  lucre's  sake  than 
Edward  Youmans  in  preaching  in  a  spirit  of  the 
purest  disinterestedness  the  gospel  of   evolution. 


92  A  Century  of  Science 

As  long  as  he  lived,  Spencer  had  upon  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic  an  alter  ego  ever  on  the  alert  with 
vision  like  that  of  a  hawk  for  the  slightest  chance 
to  promote  his  interests  and  those  of  his  system  of 
thought. 

Among  the  allies  thus  enlisted  at  that  early  time 
were  Mr.  George  Ripley  and  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  both  of  whom  did  good  service,  in  their 
different  ways,  in  awakening  public  interest  in  the 
doctrine  of  evolution.  In  those  days  of  the  Civil 
War  it  was  especially  hard  to  keep  up  the  list  of 
subscribers  in  an  abstruse  philosophical  publica- 
tion of  apparently  interminable  length.  Youmans 
now  and  then  found  it  needful  to  make  a  journey 
in  the  interests  of  the  work,  and  it  was  on  one 
of  these  occasions,  in  November,  1863,  that  I 
made  his  acquaintance.  I  had  already  published, 
in  1861,  an  article  in  one  of  the  quarterly  reviews, 
in  which  Spencer's  work  was  referred  to;  and 
another  in  1863,  in  which  the  law  of  evolution 
was  illustrated  in  connection  with  certain  problems 
of  the  science  of  language.  The  articles  were 
anonymous,  as  was  then  the  fashion,  and  You- 
mans' curiosity  was  aroused.  There  were  so  few 
people  then  who  had  any  conception  of  what  Spen- 
cer's work  meant  that  they  could  have  been 
counted  on  one's  fingers.     At  that  time  I  knew 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  93 

of  only  three ;  the  late  Professor  Gurney,  of  Har- 
vard ;  Mr.  George  Litch  Roberts,  now  an  eminent 
patent  lawyer  in  Boston ;  and  Mr.  John  Spencer 
Clark,  now  of  the  Prang  Educational  Company. 
I  have  since  known  that  there  were  at  least  two 
or  three  others  about  Boston,  among  them  my 
learned  friend  the  Rev.  William  Rounseville  Alger, 
besides  several  in  other  parts  of  the  country. 
When  we  sometimes  ventured  to  observe  that 
Spencer's  work  was  as  great  as  Newton's,  and  that 
his  theory  of  evolution  was  going  to  remodel  human 
thinking  upon  all  subjects  whatever,  people  used 
to  stare  at  us  and  take  us  for  idiots.  Any  one 
member  of  such  a  small  community  was  easy  to 
find ;  and  I  have  always  dated  a  new  era  in  my 
life  from  the  Sunday  afternoon  when  Youmans 
came  to  my  room  in  Cambridge.  It  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  friendship  such  as  hardly  comes  but  once 
to  a  man.  At  that  first  meeting  I  knew  nothing 
of  him  except  that  he  was  the  author  of  a  text- 
book of  chemistry  which  I  had  found  interesting, 
in  spite  of  its  having  been  crammed  down  my 
throat  by  an  old-fashioned  memorizing  teacher  who, 
I  am  convinced,  never  really  knew  so  much  as  the 
difference  between  oxygen  and  antimony.  At  first 
it  was  a  matter  of  breathless  interest  to  talk  with 
a  man  who  had  seen  Herbert  Spencer.     But  one 


94  A  Century  of  Science 

of  the  immediate  results  of  this  interview  was  the 
beginning  of  my  own  correspondence  and  intimate 
friendship  with  Spencer.  And  from  that  time 
forth  it  always  seemed  as  if,  whenever  any  of  the 
good  or  lovely  things  of  life  came  to  my  lot,  some- 
how or  other  Edward  Youmans  was  either  the 
cause  of  it,  or  at  any  rate  intimately  concerned 
with  it.  The  sphere  of  his  unselfish  goodness  was 
so  wide  and  its  quality  so  potent  that  one  could 
not  come  into  near  relations  with  him  without  be- 
coming in  all  manner  of  unsuspected  ways  strength- 
ened and  enriched. 

In  the  autumn  of  1865  we  were  dismayed  by 
the  announcement  that  Spencer  would  no  longer 
be  able  to  go  on  issuing  his  works.  In  London 
they  were  published  at  his  own  expense  and  risk, 
and  those  books  which  now  yield  a  handsome  profit 
did  not  then  pay  the  cost  of  making  them.  By 
the  sunnuer  of  1865  there  was  a  balance  of  XllOO 
against  Spencer,  and  his  property  was  too  small  to 
admit  of  his  going  on  and  losing  at  such  a  rate. 
As  soon  as  this  was  known,  John  Stuart  Mill 
begged  to  be  allowed  to  assume  the  entire  pecun- 
iary responsibility  of  continuing  the  publication; 
but  this,  Mr.  Spencer,  while  deeply  affected  by 
such  noble  sympathy,  would  not  hear  of.  He  con- 
sented,   however,    with    great   reluctance,    to   the 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  95 

attempt  of  Huxley  and  Lubbock,  and  other  friends, 
to  increase  artificially  the  list  of  subscribers  by 
inducing  people  to  take  the  work  just  in  order  to 
help  support  it.  But  after  several  months  the 
sudden  death  of  Spencer's  father  added  something 
to  his  means  of  support,  and  he  thereupon  with- 
drew his  consent  to  this  arrangement,  and  deter- 
mined to  go  on  publishing  as  before,  and  bearing 
the  loss. 

But  as  soon  as  the  first  evil  tidings  reached 
America  Youmans  made  up  his  mind  that  $5500 
must  be  forthwith  raised  by  subscription,  in  order 
to  make  good  the  loss  already  incurred.  It  is 
delightful  to  remember  the  vigour  with  which  he 
took  hold  of  this  work.  The  sum  of  17000  was 
raised  and  invested  in  American  securities  in  Spen- 
cer's name.  If  he  did  not  see  fit  to  accept  these 
securities,  they  would  go  without  an  owner.  The 
best  of  Waltham  watches  was  procured  for  Spencer 
by  his  American  friends  ;  a  letter,  worded  with 
rare  delicacy  and  tact,  was  written  by  the  late 
Robert  Minturn ;  and  Youmans  sailed  for  England 
to  convey  the  letter  and  the  watch  to  Spencer. 
It  was  a  charming  scene  on  a  summer  day  in  an 
English  garden  when  the  great  philosopher  was 
apprised  of  what  had  been  done.  It  was  so  skil- 
fully managed  that  he  could  not  refuse  the  tribute 


96  A  Century  of  Science 

without  seeming  churlish.  He  therefore  accepted 
it,  and  applied  it  to  extending  his  researches  in 
descriptive  sociology. 

Of  the  many  visits  which  Youmans  made  to 
England,  now  and  then  extending  them  to  the 
Continent,  one  of  the  most  important  was  in  1871, 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  the  International 
Scientific  Series.  This  was  a  favourite  scheme  of 
JToumans.  He  realized  that  popular  scientific 
books,  adapted  to  the  general  reader,  are  apt  to 
be  written  by  third-rate  men  who  do  not  well  un- 
derstand their  subject  ;  they  are  apt  to  be  dry  or 
superficial,  or  both.  No  one  can  write  so  good  a 
popular  book  as  the  master  of  a  subject,  if  he  only 
has  a  fair  gift  of  expressing  himself  and  keeps  in 
mind  the  public  for  which  he  is  writing.  The 
master  knows  what  to  teU  and  what  to  omit, 
and  can  thus  tell  much  in  a  short  compass  and 
still  make  it  interesting ;  moreover,  he  avoids  the 
inaccuracies  which  are  sure  to  occur  in  second- 
hand work.  Masters  of  subjects  are  apt,  however, 
to  be  too  much  occupied  with  original  research  to 
write  popular  books.  It  was  Youmans'  plan  to 
induce  the  leading  men  of  science  in  Europe 
and  America  to  contribute  small  volumes  on  their 
special  subjects  to  a  series  to  be  pubHshed  si- 
multaneously in  several  countries  and  languages. 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  97 

Furthermore,  by  special  contract  with  publishing 
houses  of  high  reputation,  the  author  was  to  re- 
ceive the  ordinary  royalty  on  every  copy  of  his 
book  sold  in  every  one  of  the  countries  in  question ; 
thus  anticipating  international  copyright  upon  a 
very  wide  scale,  and  giving  the  author  a  much 
more  adequate  compensation  for  his  labour.  To 
put  this  scheme  into  operation  was  a  task  of  great 
difficulty,  so  many  conflicting  interests  had  to  be 
considered.  Youmans'  brilliant  success  is  attested 
by  that  noble  series  of  more  than  fifty  volumes, 
on  all  sorts  of  scientific  subjects,  written  by  men 
of  real  eminence,  and  published  in  England, 
France,  Italy,  Germany,  and  Russia,  as  well  as  in 
the  United  States. 

A  word  is  all  that  can  be  spared  for  other  parts 
of  our  friend's  work,  which  deserve  many  words, 
and  those  carefully  considered.  His  book  on 
"  Household  Science  "  is  not  the  usual  collection 
of  scrappy  comment,  recipe,  and  apothegm,  but  a 
valuable  scientific  treatise  on  heat,  light,  air,  and 
food  in  their  relations  to  every-day  life.  In  his 
"  Correlation  of  Physical  Forces  "  he  brings  to- 
gether the  epoch-making  essays  of  the  men  who 
have  successively  established  that  doctrine,  intro- 
ducing them  with  an  essay  of  his  own,  in  which 
its  history  and  its  philosophical  implications    are 


98  A  Century  of  Science 

set  forth  in  a  masterly  manner.  In  his  book  on 
the  "  Culture  demanded  by  Modern  Life "  we 
have  a  similar  collection  of  essays  with  a  similar 
excellent  original  discussion,  showing  the  need  for 
wider  and  later  training  in  science,  and  protesting 
against  the  excess  of  time  and  energy  that  is  spent 
in  classical  education  where  it  is  merely  the  fol- 
lowing of  an  old  tradition. 

As  a  crown  to  all  this  useful  work,  You- 
mans  established,  in  1872,  "The  Popidar  Science 
Monthly,"  which  has  unquestionably  been  of  high 
educational  value  to  the  general  public.  It  was 
not  the  aim  of  this  magazine  to  give  an  account  of 
every  theory  expounded,  every  fact  observed,  every 
discovery  made,  from  year  to  year,  whether  signi- 
ficant or  insignificant.  The  mind  of  the  people  is 
not  educated  by  dumping  a  great  unshapely  mass 
of  facts  into  it.  It  needs  to  be  stimulated  rather 
than  crammed.  Education  in  science  should  lead 
one  to  think  for  one's  seK:  The  scientific  maga- 
zine, therefore,  should  present  articles  from  all 
quarters  that  deal  with  the  essential  conceptions 
of  science  or  discuss  problems  of  real  theoretical 
or  practical  interest,  no  matter  whether  every 
particular  asteroid  or  the  last  new  species  of  bar- 
nacle receives  full  attention  or  not.  "  The  Popular 
Science  Montlily ''  has  now  been  with  us  eighteen 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans  99 

years  ;  its  character  has  always  been  of  the  highest, 
and  it  must  have  exerted  an  excellent  influence  not 
only  as  a  diffuser  of  valuable  knowledge,  but  in 
training  its  readers  to  scientific  habits  of  thought 
in  so  far  as  mere  reading  can  contribute  to  such  a 
result. 

In  concluding  our  survey  of  this  useful  and 
noble  life,  what  impresses  us  most,  I  think,  is  the 
broad  democratic  spirit  and  the  absolute  unselfish- 
ness which  it  reveals  at  every  moment  and  in 
every  act.  To  Edward  Youmans  the  imperative 
need  for  educating  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
so  as  to  use  their  mental  powers  to  the  best  advan- 
tage came  home  as  a  living,  ever  present  fact.  He 
saw  all  that  it  meant  and  means  in  the  raising  of 
mankind  to  a  higher  level  of  thought  and  action 
than  that  upon  which  they  now  live.  To  this  end 
he  consecrated  himseK  with  unalloyed  devotion  ; 
and  we  who  mourn  his  loss  look  back  upon  his 
noble  career  with  a  sense  of  victory,  knowing  how 
the  good  that  such  a  man  does  lives  after  him  and 
can  never  die. 

March,  1890. 


ly 


THE  PART  PLAYED  BY  INFANCY  IN  THE 
EVOLUTION  OF  MAN^ 

The  remarks  which  my  friend  Mr.  Clark  has 
made  with  reference  to  the  reconciling  of  science  and 
religion  seem  to  carry  me  back  to  the  days  when  I 
first  became  acquainted  with  the  fact  that  there 
were  such  things  afloat  in  the  world  as  speculations 
about  the  origin  of  man  from  lower  forms  of  life ; 
and  I  can  recall  step  by  step  various  stages  in 
which  that  old  question  has  come  to  have  a  differ- 
ent look  from  what  it  had  thirty  years  ago.  One 
of  the  commonest  objections  we  used  to  hear,  from 
the  mouths  of  persons  who  could  not  very  well  give 
voice  to  any  other  objection,  was  that  anybody, 
whether  he  knows  much  or  little  about  evolution, 
must  have  the  feeling  that  there  is  something  de- 
grading about  being  allied  with  lower  forms  of  life. 
That  was,  I  suppose,  owing  to  the  survival  of  the 

^  Short-hand  report  of  my  speech  at  a  dinner  given  for  me  by 
Mr.  John  Spencer  Clark,  at  the  Aldine  Club,  New  York,  May  13, 
1895. 


The  Part  'played  by  Infancy  101 

old  feeling  that  a  dignified  product  of  creation  ought 
to  have  been  produced  in  some  exceptional  way. 
That  which  was  done  in  the  ordinary  way,  that 
which  was  done  through  ordinary  processes  of  cau- 
sation, seemed  to  be  cheapened  and  to  lose  its  value. 
It  was  a  remnant  of  the  old  state  of  feeling  which 
took  pleasure  in  miracles,  which  seemed  to  think 
that  the  object  of  thought  was  more  dignified  if 
you  could  connect  it  with  something  supernatural; 
that  state  of  culture  in  which  there  was  an  alto- 
gether inadequate  appreciation  of  the  amount  of 
grandeur  that  there  might  be  in  the  slow  creative 
work  that  goes  on  noiselessly  by  little  minute  in- 
crements, even  as  the  dropping  of  the  water  that 
wears  away  the  stone.  The  general  progress  of 
familiarity  with  the  conception  of  evolution  has 
done  a  great  deal  to  change  that  state  of  mind. 
Even  persons  who  have  not  much  acquaintance 
with  science  have  at  length  caught  something  of  its 
lesson,  —  that  the  infinitely  cumulative  action  of 
small  causes  like  those  which  we  know  is  capable  of 
producing  results  of  the  grandest  and  most  thrill- 
ing importance,  and  that  the  disposition  to  recur  to 
the  cataclysmic  and  miraculous  is  only  a  tendency 
of  the  childish  mind  which  we  are  outgrowing 
with  wider  experience. 

The  whole  doctrine  of  evolution,  and  in  fact  the 


102  A  Century  of  Science 

■^^rliole  advance  of  modern  science  from  tlie  days  of 
Copernicus  down  to  the  present  day,  have  con- 
sisted in  the  substitution  of  processes  which  are 
familiar  and  the  application  of  those  processes, 
showing  how  they  produce  great  results. 

When  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species  "  was  first 
published,  when  it  gave  us  that  wonderful  explana- 
tion of  the  origin  of  forms  of  life  from  allied  forms 
through  the  operation  of  natural  selection,  it  must 
have  been  like  a  mental  illumination  to  every  per- 
son who  comprehended  it.  But  after  all  it  left  a 
great  many  questions  unexplained,  as  was  natural. 
It  accounted  for  the  phenomena  of  organic  develop- 
ment in  general  with  wonderful  success,  but  it  must 
have  left  a  great  many  minds  with  the  f eehng :  If 
man  has  been  produced  in  this  way,  if  the  mere 
operation  of  natural  selection  has  produced  the 
human  race,  wherein  is  the  human  race  anyway 
essentially  different  from  lower  races?  Is  not 
man  really  dethroned,  taken  down  from  that  excep- 
tional position  in  which  we  have  been  accustomed 
to  place  him,  and  might  it  not  be  possible,  in  the 
course  of  the  future,  for  other  beings  to  come  upon 
the  earth  as  far  superior  to  man  as  man  is  superior 
to  the  fossilized  dragons  of  Jurassic  antiquity  ? 

Such  questions  used  to  be  asked,  and  when  they 
were  asked,  although  one  might  have  a  very  strong 


The  Part  played  hy  Infancy  103 

feeling  that  it  was  not  so,  at  the  same  time  one 
could  not  exactly  say  why.  One  could  not  then 
find  any  scientific  argument  for  objections  to  that 
point  of  view.  But  with  the  further  development 
of  the  question  the  whole  subject  began  gradually 
to  wear  a  different  appearance  ;  and  I  am  going  to 
give  you  a  little  bit  of  autobiography,  because  I 
think  it  may  be  of  some  interest  in  this  connection. 
I  am  going  to  mention  two  or  three  of  the  succes- 
sive stages  which  the  whole  question  took  in  my 
own  mind  as  one  thing  came  up  after  another,  and 
how  from  time  to  time  it  began  to  dawn  upon  me 
that  I  had  up  to  that  point  been  looking  at  the 
problem  from  not  exactly  the  right  point  of  view. 

When  Darwin's  "  Descent  of  Man  "  was  published 
in  1871,  it  was  of  course  a  book  characterized  by 
all  his  inmiense  learning,  his  wonderful  fairness  of 
spirit  and  fertihty  of  suggestion.  Still,  one  could 
not  but  feel  that  it  did  not  solve  the  question  of 
the  origin  of  man.  There  was  one  great  contrast 
between  that  book  and  his  "  Origin  of  Species." 
In  the  earlier  treatise  he  undertook  to  point  out  a 
vera  causa  of  the  origin  of  species,  and  he  did  it. 
In  his  "  Descent  of  Man  "  he  brought  together  a 
gi-eat  many  minor  generahzations  which  facilitated 
the  understanding  of  man's  origin.  But  he  did 
not  come  at  all  near  to  solving  the  central  pro- 


104  A  Century  of  Science 

blem,  nor  did  he  anywhere  show  clearly  why 
natural  selection  might  not  have  gone  on  forever 
producing  one  set  of  beings  after  another  distin- 
guishable chiefly  by  physical  differences.  But 
Darwin's  co-discoverer,  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  at 
an  early  stage  in  his  researches,  struck  out  a  most 
brilliant  and  pregnant  suggestion.  In  that  one 
respect  Wallace  went  further  than  ever  Darwin 
did.  It  was  a  point  of  which,  indeed,  Darwin 
admitted  the  importance.  It  was  a  point  of  which 
nobody  could  fail  to  understand  the  importance, 
that  in  the  course  of  the  evolution  of  a  very  higlily 
organized  animal,  if  there  came  a  point  at  which  it 
was  of  more  advantage  to  that  animal  to  have  vari- 
ations in  his  intelligence  seized  upon  and  improved 
by  natural  selection  than  to  have  physical  changes 
seized  upon,  then  natural  selection  would  begin 
working  almost  exclusively  upon  that  creature's 
intelligence,  and  he  would  develop  in  intelligence 
to  a  great  extent,  while  his  physical  organism  would 
change  but  slightly.  Now,  that  of  course  applied 
to  the  case  of  man,  who  is  changed  physically  but 
very  slightly  from  the  apes,  while  he  has  traversed 
intellectually  such  a  stupendous  chasm. 

As  soon  as  this  statement  was  made  by  Wallace, 
it  seemed  to  me  to  open  up  an  entirely  new  world 
of  speculation.    There  was  this  enormous  antiquity 


The  Part  jplayed  hy  Infancy  105 

of  man,  during  the  greater  part  of  which  he  did 
not  know  enough  to  make  history.  We  see  man 
existing  here  on  the  earth,  no  one  can  say  how 
long,  but  surely  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
years,  yet  only  during  just  the  last  little  fringe  of 
four  or  five  thousand  years  has  he  arrived  at  the 
point  where  he  makes  history.  Before  that,  some- 
thing was  going  on,  a  great  many  things  were  going 
on,  while  his  ancestors  were  slowly  growing  up  to 
that  point  of  intelligence  where  it  began  to  make 
itself  felt  in  the  recording  of  events.  This  agrees 
with  Wallace's  suggestion  of  a  long  period  of  psychi- 
cal change,  accompanied  by  slight  physical  change. 
Well,  in  the  spring  of  1871,  when  Darwin's 
"  Descent  of  Man  "  came  oiit,  just  about  the  same 
time  I  happened  to  be  reading  Wallace's  account 
of  his  experiences  in  the  Malay  Archipelago, 
and  how  at  one  time  he  caught  a  female  orang- 
outang with  a  new-born  baby,  and  the  mother  died, 
and  Wallace  brought  up  the  baby  orang-outang 
by  hand ;  and  this  baby  orang-outang  had  a  kind 
of  infancy  which  was  a  great  deal  longer  than  that 
of  a  cow  or  a  sheep,  but  it  was  nothing  compared 
to  human  infancy  in  length.  This  little  orang- 
outang could  not  get  up  and  march  around,  as 
mammals  of  less  intelligence  do,  when  he  was  first 
born,  or  within  three  or  four  days ;  but  after  three 


106  A  Century  of  Science 

or  four  weeks  or  so  he  would  get  up,  and  begin 
taking  hold  of  something  and  pushing  it  around, 
just  as  children  push  a  chair ;  and  he  went  through 
a  period  of  staring  at  his  hands,  as  human  babies 
do,  and  altogether  was  a  good  deal  slower  in  get- 
ting to  the  point  where  he  could  take  care  of  him- 
self. And  while  I  was  reading  of  that  I  thought. 
Dear  me !  if  there  is  any  one  thing  in  which  the 
human  race  is  signally  distinguished  from  other 
mammals,  it  is  in  the  enormous  duration  of  their 
infancy ;  but  it  is  a  point  that  I  do  not  recollect 
ever  seeing  any  naturalist  so  much  as  allude  to. 

It  happened  at  just  that  time  that  I  was  mak- 
ing researches  in  psychology  about  the  organization 
of  experiences,  the  way  in  which  conscious  intel- 
ligent action  can  pass  down  into  quasi-automatic 
action,  the  generation  of  instincts,  and  various 
allied  questions ;  and  I  thought,  Can  it  be  that  the 
increase  of  intelligence  in  an  animal,  if  carried 
beyond  a  certain  point,  must  necessarily  result  in 
prolongation  of  the  period  of  infancy,  —  must 
necessarily  result  in  the  birth  of  the  mammal  at  a 
less  developed  stage,  leaving  something  to  be  done, 
leaving  a  good  deal  to  be  done,  after  birth  ?  And 
then  the  argument  seemed  to  come  along  very 
naturally,  that  for  every  action  of  life,  every  adjust- 
ment which  a  creature  makes  in  life,  whether  a 


The  Part  flayed  hy  Infancy  107 

muscular  adjustment  or  an  intelligent  adjustment, 
there  has  got  to  be  some  registration  effected  in  the 
nervous  system,  some  line  of  transit  worn  for  ner- 
vous force  to  follow ;  there  has  got  to  be  a  connec- 
tion between  certain  nerve-centres  before  the  thing 
can  be  done,  whether  it  is  the  acts  of  the  viscera  or 
the  acts  of  the  limbs,  or  anything  of  that  sort ;  and 
of  course  it  is  obvious  that  if  the  creature  has  not 
many  things  to  register  in  his  nervous  system,  if  he 
has  a  hfe  which  is  very  simple,  consisting  of  few 
actions  that  are  performed  with  great  frequency, 
that  animal  becomes  almost  automatic  in  his  whole 
life;  and  all  the  nervous  connections  that  need  to 
be  made  to  enable  him  to  carry  on  life  get  made 
during  the  foetal  period  or  during  the  Qgg  period, 
and  when  he  comes  to  be  born,  he  comes  all  ready 
to  go  to  work.  As  one  result  of  this,  he  does  not 
learn  from  individual  experience,  but  one  genera- 
tion is  like  the  preceding  generations,  with  here  and 
there  some  slight  modifications.  But  when  you  get 
the  creature  that  has  arrived  at  the  point  where  his 
experience  has  become  varied,  he  has  got  to  do  a 
good  many  things,  and  there  is  more  or  less  indi- 
viduality about  them ;  and  many  of  them  are  not 
performed  with  the  same  minuteness  and  regu- 
larity, so  that  there  does  not  begin  to  be  that 
automatism  within  the  period  during  which  he  is 


108  A  Century  of  Science 

being  developed  and  his  form  is  taking  on  its  out- 
lines. During  prenatal  life  there  is  not  time 
enough  for  all  these  nervous  registrations,  and  so 
by  degrees  it  comes  about  that  he  is  born  with  his 
nervous  system  perfectly  capable  only  of  making 
him  breathe  and  digest  food,  —  of  making  him  do 
the  things  absolutely  requisite  for  supporting  life ; 
instead  of  being  born  with  a  certain  number  of 
definite  developed  capacities,  he  has  a  number  of 
potentialities  which  have  got  to  be  roused  accord- 
ing to  his  own  individual  experience.  Pursuing 
that  line  of  thought,  it  began  after  a  while  to  seem 
clear  to  me  that  the  infancy  of  the  animal  in  a  very 
undeveloped  condition,  with  the  larger  part  of  his 
faculties  in  potentiaUty  rather  than  in  actuality, 
was  a  direct  result  of  the  increase  of  intelligence, 
and  I  began  to  see  that  now  we  have  two  steps : 
first,  natural  selection  goes  on  increasing  the  intel- 
ligence ;  and  secondly,  when  the  intelligence  goes 
far  enough,  it  makes  a  longer  infancy,  a  creature 
is  born  less  developed,  and  therefore  there  comes 
this  plastic  period  during  which  he  is  more  teach- 
able. The  capacity  for  progress  begins  to  come 
in,  and  you  begin  to  get  at  one  of  the  great 
points  in  which  man  is  distinguished  from  the 
lower  animals,  for  one  of  those  points  is  undoubt- 
edly his  progressiveness  ;  and  I  think  that  any  one 


The  Part  played  hy  Infancy  109 

will  say,  with  very  little  hesitation,  that  if  it  were 
not  for  our  period  of  infancy  we  should  not  be 
progressive.  If  we  came  into  the  world  with  our 
capacities  all  cut  and  dried,  one  generation  would 
be  very  much  like  another. 

Then,  looking  round  to  see  what  are  the  other 
points  which  are  most  important  in  which  man 
differs  from  the  lower  animals,  there  comes  that 
matter  of  the  family.  The  family  has  adumbra- 
tions and  foreshadowings  among  the  lower  ani- 
mals, but  in  general  it  may  be  said  that  while 
mammals  lower  than  man  are  gregarious,  in  man 
have  become  established  those  peculiar  relation- 
ships which  constitute  what  we  know  as  the  fam- 
ily; and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  the  existence  of 
helpless  infants  would  bring  about  just  that  state 
of  things.  The  necessity  of  caring  for  the  infants 
would  prolong  the  period  of  maternal  affection, 
and  would  tend  to  keep  the  father  and  mother  and 
children  together,  but  it  would  tend  especially  to 
keep  the  mother  and  children  together.  This  busi- 
ness of  the  marital  relations  was  not  really  a  thing 
that  became  adjusted  in  the  primitive  ages  of  man, 
but  it  has  become  adjusted  in  the  course  of  civili- 
zation. Real  monogamy,  real  faithfulness  of  the 
male  parent,  belongs  to  a  comparatively  advanced 
stage ;  but  in  the  early  stages  the  knitting  together 


110  A  Century  of  Science 

of  permanent  relations  between  mother  and  infant, 
and  the  approximation  toward  steady  relations  on 
the  part  of  the  male  parent,  came  to  bring  about 
the  family,  and  gradually  to  knit  those  organiza- 
tions which  we  know  as  clans. 

Here  we  come  to  another  stage,  another  step  for- 
ward. The  instant  society  becomes  organized  in 
clans,  natural  selection  cannot  let  these  clans  be 
broken  up  and  die  out,  —  the  clan  becomes  the  chief 
object  or  care  of  natural  selection,  because  if  you 
destroy  it  you  retrograde  again,  you  lose  all  you 
have  gained ;  consequently,  those  clans  in  which  the 
primeval  selfish  instincts  were  so  modified  that  the 
individual  conduct  would  be  subordinated  to  some 
extent  to  the  needs  of  the  clan,  —  those  are  the  ones 
which  would  prevail  in  the  struggle  for  Hfe.  In 
this  way  you  gradually  get  an  external  standard  to 
which  man  has  to  conform  his  conduct,  and  you  get 
the  germs  of  altruism  and  morality  ;  and  in  the  pro- 
longed affectionate  relation  between  the  mother  and 
the  infant  you  get  the  opportunity  for  that  develop- 
ment of  altruistic  feeling  which,  once  started  in 
those  relations,  comes  into  play  in  the  more  general 
relations,  and  makes  more  feasible  and  more  work- 
able the  bonds  which  keep  society  together,  and 
enable  it  to  unite  on  wider  and  wider  terms. 

So  it  seems  that  from  a  very  small  beginning  we 


The  Part  played  hy  Infancy  111 

are  reaching  a  very  considerable  result.  I  had  got 
these  facts  pretty  clearly  worked  out,  and  carried 
them  around  with  me  some  years,  before  a  fresh 
conclusion  came  over  me  one  day  with  a  feeling  of 
surprise.  In  the  old  days  before  the  Copernican 
astronomy  was  promulgated,  man  regarded  him- 
self as  the  centre  of  the  universe.  He  used  to 
entertain  theological  systems  which  conformed  to 
his  limited  knowledge  of  nature.  The  universe 
seemed  to  be  made  for  his  uses,  the  earth  seemed 
to  have  been  fitted  up  for  his  dwelling  place,  he 
occupied  the  centre  of  creation,  the  sun  was  made 
to  give  him  light,  etc.  When  Copernicus  over- 
threw that  view,  the  effect  upon  theology  was  cer- 
tainly tremendous.  I  do  not  believe  that  justice 
has  ever  been  done  to  the  shock  that  it  gave  to 
man  when  he  was  made  to  realize  that  he  occupied 
a  kind  of  miserable  little  clod  of  dirt  in  the  uni- 
verse, and  that  there  were  so  many  other  worlds 
greater  than  this.  It  was  one  of  the  first  great 
shocks  involved  in  the  change  from  ancient  to 
modern  scientific  views,  and  I  do  not  doubt  it  was 
responsible  for  a  great  deal  of  the  pessimistic  phi- 
losophizing that  came  in  the  seventeenth  and  eigh- 
teenth centuries. 

Now,  it  flashed  upon  me  a  dozen  years  or  so  ago 
—  after  thinking  about  this  manner  in  which  man 


112  A  Century  of  Science 

originated  —  that  man  occupies  certainly  just  as  ex- 
ceptional a  position  as  before,  if  lie  is  the  terminal 
in  a  long  series  of  evolutionary  events.  If  at  the 
end  of  the  long  history  of  evolution  comes  man,  if 
this  whole  secular  process  has  been  going  on  to 
produce  this  supreme  object,  it  does  not  much  mat- 
ter what  kind  of  a  cosmical  body  he  lives  on.  He 
is  put  back  into  the  old  position  of  theological  im- 
portance, and  in  a  much  more  intelligent  way  than 
in  the  old  days  when  he  was  supposed  to  occupy 
the  centre  of  the  universe.  We  are  enabled  to  say 
that  while  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  evolutionary 
process  going  on  throughout  countless  ages  which 
we  know  nothing  about,  yet  in  the  one  case  where 
it  is  brought  home  to  us  we  spell  out  an  intelligible 
story,  and  we  do  find  things  working  along  up  to 
man  as  a  terminal  fact  in  the  whole  process.  This 
is  indeed  a  consistent  conclusion  from  Wallace's 
suggestion  that  natural  selection,  in  working  to- 
ward the  genesis  of  man,  began  to  follow  a  new 
path  and  make  psychical  changes  instead  of  physi- 
cal changes.  Obviously,  here  you  are  started  upon 
a  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  universe.  It  is 
no  longer  going  to  be  necessary  to  shape  new  limbs, 
and  to  thicken  the  skin  and  make  new  growths  of 
hair,  when  man  has  learned  how  to  build  a  fire, 
when  he  can  take  some  other  animal's  hide  and 


The  Part  played  by  Infancy  113 

make  it  into  clothes.     You  have  got  to  a  new  state 
of  things. 

After  I  had  put  together  all  these  additional  cir- 
cumstances with  regard  to  the  origination  of  human 
society  and  the  development  of  altruism,  I  began 
to  see  a  little  further  into  the  matter.  It  then  be- 
gan to  appear  that  not  only  is  man  the  terminal 
factor  in  a  long  process  of  evolution,  but  in  the 
origination  of  man  there  began  the  development  of 
the  higher  psychical  attributes,  and  those  attributes 
are  coming  to  play  a  greater  and  greater  part  in 
the  development  of  the  human  race.  Just  take 
this  mere  matter  of  "  altruism,"  as  we  call  it.  It  is 
not  a  pretty  word,  but  must  serve  for  want  of  a 
better.  In  the  development  of  altruism  from  the 
low  point,  where  there  was  scarcely  enough  to  hold 
the  clan  together,  up  to  the  point  reached  at  the 
present  day,  there  has  been  a  notable  progress,  but 
there  is  still  room  for  an  enormous  amount  of  im- 
provement. The  progress  has  been  all  in  the  direc- 
tion of  bringing  out  what  we  call  the  higher  spirit- 
ual attributes.  The  feeling  was  now  more  strongly 
impressed  upon  me  than  ever,  that  all  these  things 
tended  to  set  the  whole  doctrine  of  evolution  into 
harmony  with  religion ;  that  if  the  past  through 
which  man  had  originated  was  such  as  has  been  de- 
scribed, then  religion  was  a  fit  and  worthy  occupa- 


114  A  Century  of  Science 

tion  for  man,  and  some  of  the  assumptions  which 
underlie  every  system  of  religion  must  be  true.  For 
example,  with  regard  to  the  assumption  that  what 
we  see  of  the  present  life  is  not  the  whole  thing ; 
that  there  is  a  spiritual  side  of  the  question  beside 
the  material  side  ;  that,  in  short,  there  is  for  man  a 
life  eternal.  When  I  wrote  the  "  Destiny  of  Man," 
all  that  I  ventured  to  say  was,  that  it  did  not  seem 
quite  compatible  with  ordinary  common  sense  to 
suppose  that  so  much  pains  would  have  been  taken 
to  produce  a  merely  ephemeral  result.  But  since 
then  another  argument  has  occurred  to  me :  that 
just  at  the  time  when  the  human  race  was  begin- 
ning to  come  upon  the  scene,  when  the  germs  of 
morality  were  coming  in  with  the  family,  when  so- 
ciety was  taking  its  first  start,  there  came  into  the 
human  mind  —  how  one  can  hardly  say,  but  there 
did  come  —  the  beginnings  of  a  groping  after  some- 
thing that  lies  outside  and  beyond  the  world  of  sense. 
That  groping  after  a  spiritual  world  has  been 
going  on  here  for  much  more  than  a  hundred  thou- 
sand years,  and  it  has  played  an  enormous  part  in 
the  history  of  mankind,  in  the  whole  development 
of  human  society.  Nobody  can  imagine  what  man- 
kind would  have  been  without  it  up  to  the  present 
time.  Either  all  religion  has  been  a  reaching  out 
for  a  phantom  that  does  not  exist,  or  a  reaching 


The  Part  played  hy  Infancy  115 

out  after  something  that  does  exist,  but  of  which 
man,  with  his  limited  intelligence,  has  only  been 
able  to  gain  a  crude  idea.  And  the  latter  seems  a 
far  more  probable  conclusion,  because,  if  it  is  not  so, 
it  constitutes  a  unique  exception  to  all  the  opera- 
tions of  evolution  we  know  about.  As  a  general 
thing  in  the  whole  history  of  evolution,  when  you 
see  any  internal  adjustment  reaching  out  toward 
something,  it  is  in  order  to  adapt  itself  to  some- 
thing that  really  exists ;  and  if  the  religious  crav- 
ings of  man  constitute  an  exception,  they  are  the 
one  thing  in  the  whole  process  of  evolution  that  is 
exceptional  and  different  from  all  the  rest.  And 
this  is  surely  an  argument  of  stupendous  and  re- 
sistless weight. 

I  take  this  autobiographical  way  of  referring  to 
these  things,  in  the  order  in  which  they  came  before 
my  mind,  for  the  sake  of  illustration.  The  net  re- 
sult of  the  whole  is  to  put  evolution  in  harmony 
with  religious  thought,  —  not  necessarily  in  har- 
mony with  particular  religious  dogmas  or  theories, 
but  in  harmony  with  the  great  religious  drift,  so 
that  the  antagonism  which  used  to  appear  to  exist 
between  religion  and  science  is  likely  to  disappear. 
So  I  think  it  wiU  before  a  great  while.  If  you 
take  the  case  of  some  evolutionist  like  Professor 
Haeckel,  who   is  perfectly  sure    that  materialism 


116  A  Century  of  Science 

accounts  for  everything  (he  has  got  it  all  cut  and 
dried  and  settled ;  he  knows  all  about  it,  so  that 
there  is  really  no  need  of  discussing  the  subject !)  ; 
if  you  ask  the  question  whether  it  was  his  scientific 
study  of  evolution  that  reaUy  led  him  to  such  a  dog- 
matic conclusion,  or  whether  it  was  that  he  started 
from  some  purely  arbitrary  assumption,  like  the 
French  materialists  of  the  eighteenth  century,  I 
have  no  doubt  the  latter  would  be  the  true  expla- 
nation. There  are  a  good  many  people  who  start 
on  their  theories  of  evolution  with  these  ultimate 
questions  all  settled  to  begin  with.  It  was  the 
most  natural  thing  in  the  world  that  after  the  first 
assaults  of  science  upon  old  beliefs,  after  a  cer- 
tain number  of  Bible  stories  and  a  certain  number 
of  church  doctrines  had  been  discredited,  there 
should  be  a  school  of  men  who  in  sheer  weariness 
should  settle  down  to  scientific  researches,  and  say, 
"  We  content  ourselves  with  what  we  can  prove 
by  the  methods  of  physical  science,  and  we  will 
throw  everything  else  overboard."  That  was  very 
much  the  state  of  mind  of  the  famous  French 
atheists  of  the  last  century.  But  only  think  how 
chaotic  nature  was  to  their  minds  compared  to 
what  she  is  to  our  minds  to-day.  Just  think  how 
we  have  in  the  present  century  arrived  where  we 
can  see  the  bearings  of  one  set  of  facts  in  nature 


The  Part  played  hy  Infancy  111 

as  collated  with  another  set  of  facts,  and  contrast 
it  with  the  view  which  even  the  greatest  of  those 
scientific  French  materialists  could  take.  Con- 
sider how  fragmentary  and  how  lacking  in  arrange- 
ment was  the  universe  they  saw  compared  with  the 
universe  we  can  see  to-day,  and  it  is  not  strange 
that  to  them  it  could  be  an  atheistic  world.  That 
hostility  between  science  and  religion  continued  as 
long  as  religion  was  linked  hand  in  hand  with  the 
ancient  doctrine  of  special  creation.  But  now  that 
the  religious  world  has  unmoored  itself,  now  that  it 
is  beginning  to  see  the  truth  and  beauty  of  nat- 
ural science  and  to  look  with  friendship  upon  con- 
ceptions of  evolution,  I  suspect  that  this  temporary 
antagonism,  which  we  have  fallen  into  a  careless 
way  of  regarding  as  an  everlasting  antagonism,  will 
come  to  an  end  perhaps  quicker  than  we  realize. 

There  is  one  point  that  is  of  great  interest  in 
this  connection,  although  I  can  only  hint  at  it. 
Among  the  things  that  happened  in  that  dim  past 
when  man  was  coming  into  existence  was  the 
increase  of  his  powers  of  manipulation ;  and  that 
was  a  factor  of  immense  importance.  Anaxagoras, 
it  is  said,  wrote  a  treatise  in  which  he  maintained 
that  the  human  race  would  never  have  become 
human  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  hand.  I  do  not 
know  that  there  was  so  very  much  exaggeration 


118  A  Century  of  Science 

about  that.  It  was  certainly  of  great  significance 
that  the  particular  race  of  mammals  whose  intelli- 
gence increased  far  enough  to  make  it  worth  while 
for  natural  selection  to  work  upon  intelligence  alone 
was  the  race  which  had  developed  hands  and  could 
manipulate  things.  It  was  a  wonderful  era  in  the 
history  of  creation  when  that  creature  could  take 
a  club  and  use  it  for  a  hammer,  or  could  pry  up  a 
stone  with  a  stake,  thus  adding  one  more  lever  to 
the  levers  that  made  up  his  arm.  From  that  day 
to  this,  the  career  of  man  has  been  that  of  a  person 
who  has  operated  upon  his  environment  in  a  differ- 
ent way  from  any  animal  before  him.  An  era  of 
similar  importance  came  probably  somewhat  later, 
when  man  learned  how  to  build  a  fire  and  cook  his 
food ;  thus  initiating  that  course  of  culinary  de- 
velopment of  which  we  have  seen  the  climax  in  our 
dainty  dinner  this  evening.  Here  was  another 
means  of  acting  upon  the  environment.  Here  was 
the  beginning  of  the  working  of  endless  physical 
and  chemical  changes  through  the  appHcation  of 
heat,  just  as  the  first  use  of  the  club  or  the  crow- 
bar was  the  beginning  of  an  enormous  development 
in  the  mechanical  arts. 

Now,  at  the  same  time,  to  go  back  once  more 
into  that  dim  past,  when  ethics  and  religion, 
manual  art  and  scientific  thought,  found  expres- 


The  Part  'played  hy  Infancy  119 

sion  in  the  crudest  form  of  mytlis,  the  aesthetic 
sense  was  germinating  likewise.  Away  back  in 
the  glacial  period  you  find  pictures  drawn  and 
scratched  upon  the  reindeer's  antler,  portraitures 
of  mammoths  and  primitive  pictures  of  the  chase  ; 
you  see  the  trinkets,  the  personal  decorations,  prov- 
ing beyond  question  that  the  aesthetic  sense  was 
there.  There  has  been  an  immense  aesthetic  de- 
velopment since  then.  And  I  believe  that  in  the 
future  it  is  going  to  mean  far  more  to  us  than 
we  have  yet  begun  to  realize.  I  refer  to  the  kind 
of  training  that  comes  to  mankind  through  direct 
operation  upon  his  environment,  the  incarnation 
of  his  thought,  the  putting  of  his  ideas  into  new 
material  relations.  This  is  going  to  exert  power- 
ful effects  of  a  civilizing  kind.  There  is  something 
strongly  educational  and  disciplinary  in  the  mere 
dealing  with  matter,  whether  it  be  in  the  manual 
training  school,  whether  it  be  in  carpentry,  in  over- 
coming the  inherent  and  total  depravity  of  inani- 
mate things,  shaping  them  to  your  will,  and  also 
in  learning  to  subject  yourself  to  their  will  (for 
sometimes  you  must  do  that  in  order  to  achieve 
your  conquests ;  in  other  words,  you  must  humour 
their  habits  and  proclivities).  In  all  this  there  is 
a  priceless  discipline,  moral  as  well  as  mental,  let 
alone  the  fact  that,  in  whatever  kind  of   artistic 


120  A  Century  of  Science 

work  a  man  does,  he  is  doing  that  which  in  the 
very  working  has  in  it  an  element  of  something 
outside  of  egoism ;  even  if  he  is  doing  it  for  mo- 
tives not  very  altruistic,  he  is  working  toward  a 
result  the  end  of  which  is  the  gratification  or  the 
benefit  of  other  persons  than  himself  ;  he  is  work- 
ing toward  some  result  which  in  a  measure  depends 
upon  their  approval,  and  to  that  extent  tends  to 
bring  him  into  closer  relations  to  his  fellow  man. 

In  the  future,  to  an  even  greater  extent  than 
in  the  recent  past,  crude  labour  will  be  replaced 
by  mechanical  contrivances.  The  kind  of  labour 
which  can  command  its  price  is  the  kind  which 
has  trained  intelligence  behind  it.  One  of  the 
great  needs  of  our  time  is  the  multiplication  of 
skilled  and  special  labour.  The  demand  for  the 
products  of  intelligence  is  far  greater  than  that 
for  mere  crude  products  of  labour,  and  it  will  be 
more  and  more  so.  For  there  comes  a  time  when 
the  latter  products  have  satisfied  the  limit  to  which 
a  man  can  consume  food  and  drink  and  shelter,  — 
those  things  which  merely  keep  the  animal  alive. 
But  to  those  things  which  minister  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  spiritual  side  of  a  man  there  is  almost 
no  limit.  The  demand  one  can  conceive  is  well- 
nigh  infinite.  One  of  the  philosophical  things  that 
have  been   said,  in  discriminating  man   from  the 


The  Part  played  hy  Infancy  121 

lower  animals,  is  that  he  is  the  one  creature  who 
is  never  satisfied.  It  is  well  for  him  that  he  is  so, 
that  there  is  always  something  more  for  which  he 
craves.  To  my  mind,  this  fact  most  strongly  hints 
that  man  is  infinitely  more  than  a  mere  animate 
machine. 
May,  1895. 


THE    ORIGINS   OF    LIBERAL  THOUGHT    IN 
AMERICA  1 

In  approaching  the  subject  of  the  origins  of 
liberal  thought  in  America,  one  cannot  help  re- 
membering that  the  discovery  of  the  new  continent 
was  itself  such  a  stimulus  to  free  thinking  as  the 
world  had  never  before  witnessed.  From  time  im- 
memorial, the  trade  between  Europe  and  the  re- 
mote parts  of  Asia  had  followed  certain  customary 
routes.  From  ancient  days,  long  before  Olympiads 
were  heard  of,  when  Assyrian  kings  with  curly 
beards  commemorated  their  victories  in  arrow- 
headed  inscriptions,  men  had  used  those  same 
routes.  Up  the  Red  Sea,  in  the  early  prime  of 
hundred-gated  Thebes,  came  ships  from  the  Indian 
Ocean,  with  gems  and  spices  to  exchange  for 
Egyptian  fine  linens  and  amulets  of  amber  from 
the  Baltic ;  and  five  thousand  years  later  Venetian 
argosies  at  Alexandria  were  laden  with  just  such 

1  An  address  delivered  at  the  National  Conference  of  Unitarian 
Churches,  at  Washington,  D.  C,  October  23,  1895. 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  123 

gems  and  spices  to  distribute  to  the  merchants  of 
Augsburg,  the  royal  household  at  Paris,  the  lords 
and  ladies  of  Haddon  Hall.  Empires  rose  and 
feU,  creeds  and  pantheons  came  and  went,  stately 
temples  reared  their  heads  for  centuries  and  slowly 
crumbled  in  ruins,  and  stiU  amid  all  the  secular 
change  the  world's  great  stream  of  trade  flowed 
through  the  same  unshifting  channels,  and  there 
was  nothing  to  show  that  this  state  of  things,  to 
which  men's  ideas  and  habits  had  always  been  ad- 
justed, was  not  to  endure  forever.  So  it  was  in 
that  recent  time  when  Henry  V.  of  England  was 
smiting  the  French  chivalry  at  Agincourt,  and  his 
cousin  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal  was  beginning 
the  search  for  an  ocean  route  to  the  Indies.  Never 
did  the  human  mind  get  such  a  wrench  out  of  its 
ancient  grooves,  never  were  such  vistas  of  new  pos- 
sibilities laid  open,  never  was  beheld  such  glorious 
hardihood,  such  startling  romance,  as  in  the  time 
when  Columbus  sailed  westward  to  find  the  East, 
and  Cortes  met  warriors  of  the  Stone  Age  face  to 
face.  The  men  of  Europe  suddenly  found  them- 
selves placed  in  new  and  unsuspected  relations  to 
the  planet  on  which  they  lived  ;  worlds  of  barba- 
rism and  savagery,  unheard  of  and  unspeakably 
bizarre,  were  brought  to  their  notice  ;  strange  con- 
stellations arose  in  the  firmament ;  strange  beasts 


124  A  Century  of  Science 

and  birds  were  encountered  amid  outlandish  trees 
and  shrubs  in  new  chmates  beyond  unknown  seas. 
The  old  familiarity  with  nature's  aspects  received 
an  abrupt  shock.  On  every  side  loomed  up  new 
questions  to  be  answered,  new  practical  problems 
to  be  solved.  All  man's  inventive  faculty,  all  his 
patient  inquisitiveness,  all  the  courage  he  could 
summon,  were  forthwith  called  into  play.  The 
dreams  of  boundless  riches,  the  eager  thirst  for  new 
knowledge,  the  superhuman  bravery,  which  charac- 
terized the  epoch  of  maritime  discovery,  are  symp- 
toms that  reveal  to  us  the  highly  wrought  condi- 
tion of  the  European  mind  at  the  time.  A  study 
of  contemporary  chronicles  and  letters  cannot  fail 
to  bring  home  to  us  the  singular  intensity  with 
which  the  thrill  of  venturesome  romance  was  felt 
in  every  fibre  of  man's  being. 

The  impulse  thus  given  to  free  thinking  must 
have  been  extremely  powerful.  It  is  customary 
to  attribute  the  brilliant  efflorescence  of  the  hu- 
man mind  in  the  sixteenth  century  to  the  revival 
of  Greek  learning.  Without  seeking  to  diminish 
the  respect  due  to  that  mighty  cause,  it  may  be 
contended  that  the  influence  of  maritime  discovery 
was  equally  important.  While  the  Greek  renais- 
sance brought  men  into  wholesome  and  stimulat- 
ing intercourse  with  the  highest  achievements  of 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  125 

literature,  art,  and  philosophy,  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World  impressed  upon  them,  as  nothing  had 
ever  done  before,  the  feasibleness  of  doing  things 
in  novel  ways.  With  the  wholesale  displacement 
of  commercial  relations,  the  European  mind  burst 
the  bounds  of  the  snug  little  world  to  which  its 
habits  and  theories,  its  politics  civil  and  ecclesias- 
tical, its  science  and  its  theology,  had  been  adapted. 
The  sudden  and  unprecedented  widening  of  the 
environment  soon  set  up  a  general  fermentation  of 
ideas.  There  was  nothing  accidental  in  Martin 
Luther's  coming  in  the  next  generation  after  Co- 
lumbus. Nor  was  it  strange  that  in  the  following 
age  the  English  mind,  wrought  to  its  highest  ten- 
sion under  the  combined  influences  of  Renaissance, 
Reformation,  and  maritime  adventure,  should  have 
put  forth  a  literature  the  boldest  and  grandest 
that  had  ever  appeared  ;  that  the  era  of  Raleigh 
and  Frobisher  and  the  early  Puritans  should  have 
seen  even  the  highest  mark  of  Greek  achievement 
surpassed  by  Shakespeare.  The  gigantic  revolu- 
tion set  on  foot  by  Copernicus  was  already  in  full 
progress,  the  era  of  Descartes  was  just  arriving, 
and  the  next  century  was  to  see  modern  scientific 
method  receive  its  supreme  illustration  at  the 
hands  of  Newton,  while  the  principles  of  freedom 
in  thought  and  speech  were  to  find  invincible 
champions  in  Milton  and  Locke. 


126  A  Century  of  Science 

Such  was  the  age  in  which  the  work  of  Eng- 
lish colonization  in  America  was  beginning.  In 
looking  for  the  origins  of  liberal  thought  in  Amer- 
ica, it  is  chiefly  with  English-speaking  America 
that  we  are  concerned.  The  Spanish  mind,  in- 
deed, felt  strongly  the  stimulus  of  the  maritime 
discoveries  and  the  contact  with  strange  races  of 
men,  until  an  age  of  chivalrous  enterprise  bloomed 
forth  in  the  literature  of  Calderon  and  Lope  de 
Vega  and  Cervantes ;  but  the  new  spirit  was  not 
strong  enough  to  prevail  over  an  ecclesiastical  or- 
ganization that  had  been  growing  in  power  since 
the  Visigothic  times.  The  higher  intellectual  life 
of  Spain  perished  in  the  fires  of  the  Inquisition, 
and  art  and  song  failed  to  lead  the  way  to  science 
and  free  thought ;  no  Spanish  Locke  or  Newton 
followed  in  the  train  of  a  Lope  and  a  Murillo,  but 
so  lately  as  the  year  1771  the  University  of  Sala- 
manca prohibited  the  teaching  of  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation as  discordant  with  revealed  religion.^  With 
such  a  state  of  things  in  the  mother  country,  lib- 
eral thought  in  the  Spanish  colonies  was  a  plant  of 
very  slow  growth.  As  for  France  at  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  there  was  a  sturdy  intellec- 
tual life  there  which  no  efforts  of  tyranny  could 
more  than    partially   repress;    but   circumstances 

^  Sempere,  Monarchie  Espagnole,  ii.  152. 


Liberal  Thought  in  America     '       127 

threw  the  work  of  colonization  into  the  hands  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  accordingly  the  history  of  New 
France,  while  eminent  for  devoted  bravery  and 
heroic  endurance,  shows  scarcely  a  trace  of  liberal 
thinking  either  in  politics  or  in  matters  pertain- 
ing to  religion.  Not  with  the  French  and  Span- 
ish portions  of  America,  therefore,  but  with  the 
colonies  that  developed  into  the  United  States,  is 
our  inquiry  concerned. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  consideration  which 
strikes  us  is  that  while  the  two  centuries  following 
the  discovery  of  America  witnessed  an  unprece- 
dented awakening  of  the  European  mind,  yet  it 
was  only  with  those  nations  that  had  retained  self- 
government  that  this  intellectual  awakening  was 
to  come  to  prompt  and  full  fruition.  From  the 
British  islands  and  the  Netherlands  came  the  kind 
of  public  policy  that  allowed  free  thinking  to  take 
deep  root  and  send  up  a  thrifty  tree  of  liberty. 
The  planting  of  such  seed  in  the  spacious  virgin 
soil  of  the  New  World  was  doubtless  the  greatest 
of  all  the  manifold  unforeseen  results  for  which 
Columbus  opened  the  way.  It  made  political  free- 
dom the  strongest  power  on  earth,  and  thus  fa- 
voured the  attainment  of  that  equable  flexibility 
of  mind  which  allows  the  thought  to  play  freely 
about  the  facts  which  are  laid  before  it.     Not  in 


128  A  Century  of  Science 

a  moment  was  such  a  grand  result  acliieved  ;  its 
complete  realization  has  not  yet  come,  and  none  of 
us  may  live  to  see  it,  yet  toward  that  goal  the 
whole  impetus  of  men's  civilizing  work  is  tending, 
and  there  is  no  power  that  can  prevent  the  consum- 
mation. Year  by  year,  no  matter  how  grave  the 
questions  with  which  we  have  to  deal,  we  are  be- 
coming more  and  more  able  to  let  our  minds  play 
freely  with  them,  to  turn  them  hither  and  thither 
.  till  all  sides  be  seen  and  all  aspects  duly  consid- 
ered. 

Not  all  in  a  moment,  I  say,  has  such  a  desirable 
result  been  achieved.  So  far  is  it,  moreover,  from 
having  been  brought  about  by  conscious  human 
effort  that  mankind  have  in  general  struggled 
desperately  against  it.  Compared  with  the  mass 
of  men,  it  is  only  a  few  minds  that  have  learned 
to  regard  absolute  freedom  of  thought  as  some- 
thing to  be  desired.  Though  the  colonization  of 
America  came  at  a  time  when  men's  minds  were 
stirred  by  novel  ideas  as  never  before,  though  the 
men  of  that  generation  were  movmg  irrepressibly 
toward  liberality  of  thought,  yet  there  were  very 
few  who  had  any  liking  for  liberal  thought,  or  any 
good  word  to  bestow  upon  it.  There  were  few 
who  doubted  that  absolute  truth  was  attainable 
concerning  the  most  abstruse   questions  of  philo- 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  129 

sophy  and  religion,  and  an  exactly  true  belief  on 
minute  points  of  theology  was  deemed  necessary 
for  one's  personal  salvation.  Changes  in  opinion 
simply  wrought  a  transfer  of  allegiance  from  one 
orthodoxy  to  another,  and  the  new  orthodoxy  felt 
bound  as  much  as  the  old  one  to  persecute  all  who 
refused  such  allegiance.  From  this  point  of  view 
the  history  of  the  progress  of  liberal  thought  be- 
comes curiously  interesting,  for  it  shows  how  one 
of  the  most  momentous  revolutions  in  human  life 
has  steadily  gone  on  in  spite  of  the  inveterate 
antagonism  of  the  very  men  concerned  in  bringing 
it  about !  To  a  considerable  extent,  the  history 
has  been  the  same  over  a  large  part  of  the  globe. 
The  causes  which  have  been  at  work  in  America 
have  also  been  at  work  in  Europe,  and  even  be- 
yond ;  and  the  liberal  thought  with  which  we  are 
familiar  is  characteristic  not  so  much  of  America 
as  of  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
But  along  with  the  general  causes  there  have  been 
local  causes  which  have  especially  concerned  the 
New  World,  and  a  clear  account  of  the  matter 
requires  us  to  indicate  both  the  one  and  the  other. 
From  the  revolt  of  Henry  YIII.  against  the 
Papacy  down  to  the  Eevolution  of  1688,  there  was 
in  England  a  progressive  movement  toward  liberal 
thought.     It  was  at  first  a  crude  unconscious  move- 


130  A  Century  of  Science 

ment  in  the  direction  of  toleration,  which  is  a  neces- 
sary condition  for  the  development  of  free  think- 
ing. When  we  have  arrived  at  a  truly  cordial 
toleration  of  opinions,  allowing  to  all  free  play  to 
stand  or  fall,  just  as  hypotheses  in  science  are  suf- 
fered to  stand  or  fall,  then  is  men's  thought  for  the 
first  time  really  untrammelled.  Whatever,  there- 
fore, tended  toward  toleration  of  diverse  forms  of 
creed  or  worship  was  a  step  in  the  path  that  led 
to  free  thinking  ;  and  whatever  tended  to  demo- 
cratize the  church  and  relieve  it  from  state  control 
was  a  step  toward  toleration.  The  revolt  of  Henry 
VIII.  at  first  but  realized  what  the  prcemunire 
statutes  of  Edward  I.  and  Edward  III.  had  threat- 
ened. But  by  breaking  up  the  religious  orders, 
expelhng  abbots  from  Parliament,  and  making  the 
headship  of  the  church  a  subject  of  fierce  dispute, 
it  contributed  immensely  to  weaken  and  relax  the 
bonds  of  conservatism,  and  it  afforded  a  rare  op- 
portunity for  the  thoughts  of  laymen  and  small 
preachers  to  assert  themselves.  Thus  the  Lollard- 
ism  which  had  been  partially  suppressed  for  more 
than  a  century  now  reared  its  head  again  defi- 
antly, and,  after  learning  lessons  in  democracy 
from  Calvin,  came  forth  as  Puritanism,  clad  in  full 
panoply  for  one  of  the  world's  most  fateful  con- 
tests. 


Liberal  TJiougJit  in  America  131 

In  the  course  of  Elizabeth's  reign  we  find  this 
Puritanism  taking  three  different  shapes.  There 
were  the  moderate  reformers,  whose  wish  was  simply 
to  trim  and  prune  the  tree  of  Episcopacy;  and 
secondly,  those  who  were  afterward  known  as  "  root 
and  branch "  men,  whose  name  is  descriptive 
enough.  Instead  of  pruning  they  would  uproot 
the  tree  and  cast  it  away.  To  these  Presbyterians 
the  royal  supremacy  was  no  more  than  the  papal 
a  part  of  the  living  growth  of  Christ's  church  ;  it 
was  but  stubble  fit  for  burning.  Kings  looked 
with  horror  upon  such  views,  which  threatened 
political  danger  no  less  than  ecclesiastical.  "  A 
Scottieli  presbytery,"  cried  James  I.,  "  agree th 
as  wel.  with  a  monarchy  as  God  and  the  Devil. 
Then  Jack  and  Tom  and  Will  and  Dick  shall  meet, 
and  at  their  pleasures  censure  me  and  my  council 
and  aU  our  proceedings."  The  case  could  not  have 
been  more  pithily  stated,  yet  even  Presbyterianism 
stopped  short  of  full-fledged  democracy.  For  Jack 
and  his  friends,  by  means  of  synods  and  general 
assemblies,  could  create  a  governing  body  with 
power  of  enforcing  conformity  upon  unwilling 
congregations.  In  protest  against  this  somewhat 
oligarchical  method,  Puritanism  assumed  its  third 
form,  that  of  Independency.  The  beginnings  of 
Independency  are  to  be  sought  among  the  Brown- 


132  A  Century  of  Science 

ists  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  though  their  day  of  glory 
first  came  with  the  Civil  War.  In  the  theory  of 
the  Independents,  as  fully  developed,  any  group 
of  persons  wishing  to  worship  God  in  common 
might  come  together  and  organize  themselves  into 
a  Congregational  church,  existing  by  as  good  a 
warrant  as  any  other  church,  and  entirely  free 
from  the  control  of  any  bishop,  or  synod,  or  coun- 
cil. No  outside  power  could  prescribe  its  creed  or 
interfere  with  its  ceremonial.  Each  church  be- 
came, therefore,  a  little  self-governing  republic, 
as  completely  autonomous  as  an  ancient  Greek 
city,  and  the  union  of  such  churches  was  based 
solely  upon  the  spirit  of  spontaneous  Christian 
fellowship.  Such  was  the  theory  of  Independ- 
ency. 

In  these  successive  stages  of  Protestantism  we 
may  see  the  preliminary  steps  toward  general  tol- 
eration and  toward  liberal  thought.  In  each  stage 
the  strength  of  the  coercive  power  that  could  be 
exercised  over  men's  opinions  and  expressions  of 
opinion  was  sensibly  diminished.  From  the  coer- 
cive power  of  the  universal  Church,  which  had 
once  been  able  to  direct  a  crusade  against  the 
Albigenses,  it  was  a  long  step  downward  to  the 
coercive  power  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  whose  will  to 
suppress  Puritanism  was  perpetually  held  in  check 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  133 

by  motives  of  public  policy.  It  was  a  yet  further 
step  downward  from  the  coercive  power  of  a  sov- 
ereign to  that  of  a  synod,  and  thence  again  to  that 
of  a  congregation.  So  striking  is  the  progress 
that  one  who  knew  nothing  of  history  might  easily 
mistake  the  theory  of  Independency  as  providing 
practically  for  something  like  complete  toleration. 
History  tells  us  that  this  was  far  from  being  the 
case.  Heresy,  or  dissent  from  the  commonly  ac- 
cepted orthodoxy,  has  been  no  more  tolerated  in 
Independent  churches  than  elsewhere ;  and  even 
in  the  absence  of  serious  differences  in  dogma,  per- 
secution has  been  visited  upon  divergences  from 
the  customary  ritual,  as  for  example  in  the  treat- 
ment long  accorded  to  Baptists.  In  their  militant 
days,  neither  Presbyterianism  nor  Independency 
ever  professed  to  be  tolerant.  The  gravest  re- 
proach they  could  imagine  was  to  be  charged  with 
encouraging  free  thinking.  The  eminent  Scottish 
divine  Rutherford  gave  expression  to  the  prevail- 
ing sentiment  when  he  declared,  "  We  regard  tolera- 
tion of  all  religions  as  not  far  removed  from  blas- 
phemy." Nevertheless,  the  movement  which  gave 
rise  to  Presbyterianism  and  to  Independency  was 
sure  to  advance  to  the  announcement  of  the  princi- 
ple of  universal  toleration.  That  movement  was 
itself  the  expression  of  a  vast  amount  of  free  think- 


134  A  Century  of  Science 

ing,  and  it  was  not  to  stop  short  of  recognizing 
the  claims  of  free  thought.  The  century  that 
witnessed  the  beginnings  of  an  English-speaking 
America  saw  also  the  genuine  principles  of  tolera- 
tion laid  down  by  Roger  Williams  and  WiUiam 
Penn,  and  demonstrated  with  resistless  wealth  of 
learning  and  logic  by  Milton  and  Locke. 

In  an  account  of  the  origins  of  liberal  thought 
in  America  this  English  development  is  all-impor- 
tant, but  it  does  not  cover  the  whole  field.  Ameri- 
ca's inheritance  from  Europe  comes  chiefly,  but  not 
entirely,  from  the  British  islands.  In  the  early 
days  of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  there  were 
European  countries  in  which  religious  toleration 
had  advanced  practically  much  further  than  in 
England.  The  England  of  Henry  VIII.  as  com- 
pared with  the  Netherlands  was  in  a  crude  and 
backward  condition.  The  contrast  might  be  lik- 
ened to  that  between  rural  life  with  its  narrow 
mental  horizon  and  the  varied  cosmopohtan  life 
of  the  city.  England  politically  was  a  land  of 
unrivalled  promise,  but  she  was  not  quite  abreast 
with  the  most  advanced  culture  of  the  time.  Her 
government  was  mainly  in  the  hands  of  country 
gentlemen,  who  lacked  some  valuable  elements  of 
experience  that  were  possessed  by  the  burghers 
of   commercial  Antwerp  and    Ghent.     A  careful 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  135 

survey  of  the  Middle  Ages  shows  plainly  an  abid- 
ing antagonism  between  commerce  and  the  ecclesi- 
astical spirit.  A  general  connection  between  the 
predominance  of  international  trade  and  the  secu- 
larization of  public  life  is  distinctly  traceable.  On 
the  map  of  mediaeval  Europe  one  may  point  out 
peculiar  spots  where  the  Papacy  never  gained  com- 
plete sway.  In  some  of  these,  as  in  Bohemia  and 
southern  Gaul,  the  resistance  was  due  to  Mani- 
chaean  heresies  brought  in  from  the  Eastern  Em- 
pire, giving  rise  to  a  kind  of  mediaeval  Puritanism ; 
in  these  we  do  not  find  a  spirit  of  liberal  thought 
developed,  but  rather  an  anti-Catholic  fanaticism. 
The  other  peculiar  spots  lie  in  the  great  pathway 
of  commerce  between  the  Levant  and  the  northern 
seas.  In  the  free  cities  of  northern  Italy  and 
southern  Germany,  in  the  Hansa  towns,  and  in 
the  Netherlands,  priestcraft  had  less  sway  than 
elsewhere,  and  the  general  tone  of  thought  was 
more  liberal  and  modern.  No  city  came  so  com- 
pletely under  the  secularizing  influences  of  mari- 
time commerce  as  Venice ;  and  it  is  significant 
that  the  Papacy,  at  the  very  pinnacle  of  its  power 
and  arrogance  in  the  thirteenth  century,  utterly 
failed  in  its  attempt  to  force  the  Inquisition  upon 
that  republic  of  merchants. 

In  similar  wise,  we  find  the  commercial  Nether- 


136  A  Century  of  Science 

lands  in  the  sixteenth  century  exhibiting  practically 
such  toleration  in  matters  of  religion  as  the  Brit- 
ish islands  attained  only  much  later,  and  after 
prolonged  and  distressing  struggle.  From  the 
time  of  Edward  III.  commercial  intercourse  with 
the  great  Dutch  and  Flemish  cities  was  one  of  the 
most  potent  civilizing  influences  at  work  in  Eng- 
land. It  was  a  liberalizing  influence  in  religion  and 
in  politics,  and  must  be  named  among  the  causes 
which  made  the  eastern  counties  preeminent  for 
heresy.  In  later  days,  when  the  Dutch  provinces 
had  saved  their  Protestantism  and  recovered  politi- 
cal freedom,  they  adopted  a  policy  of  toleration 
so  broad  as  to  seem  to  most  contemporaries  very 
eccentric.  Their  noble  country  was  stigmatized 
as  "  the  common  harbour  of  all  heresies "  and  a 
'^  cage  of  unclean  birds."  How  it  harboured  here- 
tics escaping  from  England  is  something  that  no 
American  is  ever  likely  to  forget. 

If,  after  this  glance  at  European  conditions,  we 
cross  the  Atlantic  and  observe  the  group  of  twelve 
colonies  that  were  planted  during  the  seventeenth 
century,  we  find  that  five  of  them  were  especially 
notable  for  pursuing  from  the  outset  a  policy  of 
toleration,  —  a  policy  favourable  to  liberal  thought. 
These  five,  naming  them  in  order  of  seniority,  were 
New  Netherland,   Maryland,    Khode  Island,   and 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  137 

Pennsylvania,  with  Delaware.  In  New  Netlier- 
land  the  Dutch  simply  maintamed  their  tradi- 
tional secularized  policy.  On  the  hospitable  island 
of  Manhattan  all  the  varieties  of  European  reli- 
gion met  on  terms  of  equality,  —  Lutherans  and 
Catholics,  Quakers  ^  and  Puritans,  Moravians  and 
Jews.  After  the  English  conquest  this  liberal  pol- 
icy was  continued  by  the  bigoted  Duke  of  York, 
for  reasons  similar  to  those  which  made  toleration 
a  necessity  in  the  province  of  the  liberal  and  saga- 
cious Calverts.  The  Catholic  proprietors  of  Mary- 
land wished  to  make  their  province  a  desirable 
home  for  Catholics  who  were  inclined  to  leave 
England,  and  the  only  possible  way  of  accomplish- 
ing this,  without  interference  from  the  British 
government,  was  to  pursue  a  policy  broad  enough 
to  include  Catholics  along  with  all  other  kinds  of 
Christians  in  its  benefits.  A  similar  necessity  con- 
fronted Charles  II.  and  James  II.  In  order  to 
secure  as  much  protection  as  possible  for  Cathohcs 
without  interference  from  Parliament,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  pursue  a  policy  broad  enough  to  include 
Quakers  along  with  Catholics.  For  such  reasons 
James  refrained  from  disturbing  the  liberal  Dutch 

1  Stuyvesant's  brief  persecution  of  Quakers,  for  which  he  was 
sternly  rebuked  by  the  home  g-ovemment,  constitutes  an  excep- 
tion to  the  rule.    See  my  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies,  i.  232-237. 


138  A  Century  of  Science 

policy  in  New  York.  For  such  reasons  both 
Stuart  kings  supported  the  schemes  of  WiUiam 
Penn,  in  whose  proprietary  colonies  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Delaware  the  principles  of  toleration 
were  carried  out,  on  the  whole,  more  completely 
than  anywhere  else  in  English-speaking  America. 
It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  observe  that 
the  mother  of  William  Penn  was  a  Dutch  lady, 
though  perhaps  it  is  possible  to  make  too  much 
of  such  a  fact.  The  Quakers,  who  formed  the 
strength  of  the  colony,  represented  a  phase  of 
Puritanism  more  liberal  than  Independency.  As 
contrasted  with  Independency,  Quakerism  was  a 
notable  advance  in  the  direction  of  Individualism ; 
it  had  outgrown  the  set  of  notions  according  to 
which  a  civic  community  ought  to  consist  of  a 
united  body  of  believers.  Pennsylvania,  therefore, 
and  its  appendage  Delaware,  profited  by  the  late 
date  at  which  they  were  founded ;  they  represented 
a  more  advanced  stage  of  opinion  than  the  colonies 
which  started  in  the  time  of  James  I.  Their  pro- 
prietary government  remained  undisturbed  until 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  in  1776 
these  two  states  were  the  only  ones  in  which  all 
Christians,  whether  Protestant  or  Catholic,  stood 
socially  and  politically  on  an  equal  footing.  For 
after  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary  had  made 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  139 

tlie  Episcopal  Church  supreme  in  New  York  and 
Maryland,  the  Catholic  inhabitants  of  those  colo- 
nies were  disfranchised  and  made  the  subject  of 
various  oppressive  enactments.  Even  the  laws  of 
Rhode  Island,  as  first  printed,  early  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  expressly  prohibit  Roman  Catho- 
lics from  voting.  The  date  of  this  statute  is  not 
accurately  known,  but  it  was  certainly  between 
1688  and  1705,^  and  may  be  due  to  the  strong 
antagonism  aroused  by  the  conduct  of  James  II. 
and  his  Jacobites.  However  that  may  be,  the 
statute  was  not  repealed  until  1784. 

The  disfranchisement  of  Catholics  was  contrary 
to  the  spirit  of  the  Rhode  Island  charter  and  to 
the  views  of  Roger  WiUiams,  who  certainly  under- 
stood the  rational  grounds  for  religious  toleration 
better  than  any  other  man  of  his  time,  save  perhaps 
Milton  and  Vane.  He  represents  the  Protestant 
principle  of  the  sacred  right  of  private  judg- 
ment carried  out  with  unflinching  logical  consist- 
ency. In  him  the  transition  from  Independency 
to  Individualism  is  completed.  The  contrast  be- 
tween the  two  is  illustrated  in  the  controversy 
between  WiUiams  and  Cotton  which  was  called 
forth  by  the  publication  in  1644  of  Williams's 
book  entitled  "  The  Bloudy  Tenent  of  Persecu- 
1  See  Arnold's  Hist(yry  of  Bhode  Island,  ii.  490-496. 


140  A  Century  of  Science 

tion."  John  Cotton  was  a  typical  Independent, 
and  by  no  means  a  man  of  persecuting  tempera- 
ment, but  bis  view  of  the  matter  is  extremely  one- 
sided. He  admits  that  it  is  wrong  for  error  to 
persecute  truth,  but  he  holds  it  to  be  the  sacred 
duty  of  truth  to  persecute  error !  Williams,  on 
the  other  hand,  sees  that  truth  stands  in  no  need 
of  violent  or  artificial  support,  and  that  error  con- 
tains within  itseK  the  seeds  of  death.  He  feels, 
too,  that  when  I  venture  to  persecute  what  I  caU 
error  in  others,  I  virtually  assume  my  own  in- 
fallibility. Thus  not  until  pure  Individualism  is 
reached  is  the  fundamental  fallacy  of  Catholicism 
escaped.  In  order  to  protect  this  sacred  Individ- 
ualism, Williams  would  have  a  complete  separa- 
tion between  church  and  state.  Under  no  pretext 
whatever  should  the  civil  government  interfere 
with  religious  matters.  There  should  be  no  more 
statutes  against  heresy  or  heretics,  no  enforced 
attendance  upon  public  worship,  no  support  of 
churches  by  taxation.  Roger  Williams  not  only 
proclaimed  such  doctrines,  but  he  lived  up  to  them. 
He  never  took  pains  to  conceal  his  dislike  of 
Quaker  doctrines ;  in  his  seventy-third  year  he 
once  rowed  himself  in  a  boat  the  whole  length  of 
Narragansett  Bay,  in  order  to  conduct  a  dispute 
against  three  valiant  Quaker  champions;  yet,  in 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  141 

spite  of  vehement  pressure  from  the  neighbouring 
colonies,  he  resolutely  refused  to  allow  the  civil 
power  of  Rhode  Island  to  be  used  against  Quakers. 
Massachusetts  in  fury  threatened  to  cut  off  the 
trade  of  the  weaker  colony,  but  nothing  could 
intimidate  Williams  into  what  he  termed  "  ex- 
ercising a  civil  power  over  men's  consciences." 
Among  the  public  men  of  the  seventeenth  century 
Roger  Williams  deserves  a  preeminent  place;  he 
was  the  first  to  conceive  thoroughly  and  carry  out 
consistently,  in  the  face  of  strong  opposition,  a 
theory  of  religious  liberty  broad  enough  to  win 
assent  and  approval  from  advanced  thinkers  of  the 
present  day. 

The  separation  of  church  from  state,  which  was 
effected  with  such  remarkable  success  in  the  found- 
ing of  Rhode  Island,  did  not  become  general  in  the 
United  States  until  after  the  winning  of  independ- 
ence. On  this  issue  the  eighteenth  century  had 
its  memorable  struggle,  in  which  the  protagonist 
was  Virginia,  and  the  victory  was  achieved  under 
the  leadership  of  Jefferson  and  Madison.  The  early 
policy  of  Virginia  was  to  drive  out  dissentients,  or 
subject  them  to  civil  disabilities  ;  and  of  the  Puri- 
tans who  went  thither  for  a  while  the  greater  part 
left  the  colony,  many  of  them  retreating  into  toler- 
ant Maryland.     After  1660,  for  tlu^ee  generations 


142  A  Century  of  Science 

the  Episcopal  folk  had  it  all  their  own  way.  But 
about  1720  began  the  wholesale  immigration  of 
Presbyterians  and  Lutherans  into  the  Shenandoah 
Valley,  and  after  the  middle  of  the  century  trouble 
began  when  the  tide-water  Cavaliers  tried  to  im- 
pose taxes  upon  these  people  for  the  support  of 
the  Established  Church.  The  most  numerous  and 
powerful  opponents  of  this  narrow  policy  were  the 
Presbyterians;  and  inasmuch  as  these  had  come, 
not  from  Scotland  where  their  own  church  was  es- 
tablished, but  from  Ireland  where  it  was  persecuted, 
their  experience  had  led  them  to  approve  the 
separation  of  church  from  state.  Their  political 
notions  were  also  strongly  democratic,  and  with  the 
aid  of  their  votes  Jefferson's  party  not  only  abol- 
ished primogeniture  and  entail  and  other  old  Eng- 
lish customs,  but  also  carried  the  disestablishment 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Virginia.  Madison's 
Religious  Freedom  Act  of  1785,  which  not  only 
effected  this,  but  likewise  did  away  with  all  reli- 
gious tests,  is  a  very  important  event  in  the  history 
of  the  United  States.  The  statute,  which  declared 
that  "  opinion  in  matters  of  religion  shall  in  no 
wise  diminish,  enlarge,  or  affect  civil  capacities," 
attracted  attention  far  and  wide  ;  it  was  translated 
into  several  European  languages,  and  published 
with  admiring  comments ;  and  in  the  course  of  the 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  143 

next  forty  years  it  was  imitated  by  one  state  after 
another,  until  all  over  the  land  religious  freedom 
came  to  be  almost  as  complete  as  legislation  could 
make  it.  The  (qualifying  adverb  is  still  needed ; 
for,  by  the  constitutions  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ten- 
nessee, no  man  can  hold  office  unless  he  believes  in 
God  and  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments ;  in  Texas,  Arkansas,  Mississippi,  the  two 
Carolinas,  and  Maryland,  belief  in  God  is  required ; 
and  in  Arkansas  and  Maryland  a  man  who  does 
not  believe  in  God  and  a  future  state  of  retribu- 
tion is  deemed  incompetent  as  a  witness  or  juror. ^ 
Such  curiosities  of  law-making  —  survivals  from 
a  lower  state,  like  the  caudal  vertebrae  in  man 
and  the  higher  apes  —  are  common  enough  in  his- 
tory. 

The  various  stages  here  mentioned  in  the  pro- 
gress toward  religious  toleration,  and  toward  the 
separation  of  church  and  state,  are  important  symp- 
toms of  the  progress  of  liberal  thought.  Of  course 
Madison's  Religious  Freedom  Act  could  not  have 
been  proposed  by  an  Endicott,  or  sustained  by  a 
community  that  would  not  endure  the  presence  of 
Baptists  or  Quakers.  The  sketch  here  given  shows 
an  enormous  advance  in  liberal  thought  in  the 
course  of   two  centuries  and  a  half.     But  such  a 

1  Stimson,  American  Statute  Law,  §  46. 


144  A  Century  of  Science 

survey  is  far  from  telling  us  the  whole  story.  A 
further  inquiry  into  causal  agencies  is  needed,  and 
the  best  field  for  it  is  furnished  by  that  theocratic 
Puritanism  which  cast  out  Roger  WiUiams,  —  the 
Puritanism  of  the  four  confederated  New  England 
colonies,  and  especially  of  Massachusetts.  No  one 
can  deny  that  in  Massachusetts,  during  the  nine- 
teenth century,  liberal  thought  has  advanced  further 
and  has  permeated  the  community  more  thoroughly 
than  in  any  other  state  of  the  American  Union. 
For  at  least  three  generations  the  intellectual  fer- 
ment upon  which  liberal  thought  in  the  United 
States  has  thriven  has  come  chiefly  from  Massa- 
chusetts. Yet  among  our  colonies  which  attained 
social  maturity  during  the  seventeenth  century 
there  was  none  which  made  such  emphatic  exhibi- 
tions of  intolerance  and  bigotry  as  Massachusetts. 
She  was  as  clearly  and  avowedly  founded  upon  an 
illiberal  principle  as  Rhode  Island  was  founded 
upon  a  principle  of  liberality.  The  Endicott  type 
of  mind  is  the  very  antipodes  of  the  Roger  Wil- 
liams type  ;  yet  it  was  in  the  land  of  Endicott,  and 
in  a  congenial  soil,  that  Theodore  Parker  lately 
flourished.  Whence  came  so  great  a  change? 
The  answer  wiU  remind  us  that  there  are  two 
sources  from  which  liberal  thought  is  nourished. 
The  one  is  the  secularized  Gallio  spirit  that  deems 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  145 

it  folly  to  interpose  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the 
natural  working  of  reason  and  common  sense  ;  the 
other  is  the  intense  devotion  to  spiritual  ideals 
which,  in  spite  of  all  inherited  encumbrances  of 
bigotry  and  superstition,  never  casts  off  its  alle- 
giance to  reason  as  the  final  arbiter.  The  former 
spirit  is  of  vast  use  in  the  world,  although  its  ten- 
dency is  to  deaden  into  mere  worldliness  as  typified 
in  a  Franklin ;  the  latter  spirit  may  commit  many 
.  an  error,  but  its  drift  is  toward  light  and  stimulus 
and  exaltation  of  life  as  typified  in  an  Emerson. 
In  the  darkest  days  of  New  England  Puritanism 
the  paramount  allegiance  to  reason  was  never  lost 
sight  of ;  and  out  of  this  fact  came  the  triumph  of 
free  thinking,  although  no  such  result  was  ever 
intended. 

The  aims  of  the  Puritans  who  settled  in  New 
England  were  not  all  alike,  but  one  dominant  aim 
with  many  was  the  founding  of  a  commonwealth 
in  which  church  and  state  should  be  identified, 
somewhat  after  the  pattern  of  the  old  Hebrew 
theocracy.  To  this  end  the  suffrage  in  Massachu- 
setts and  New  Haven  was  limited  to  persons  quali- 
fied to  receive  the  sacrament  in  Congregational 
churches.  This  Massachusetts  idea  was  never 
adopted  by  Plymouth,  and  the  founding  of  Con- 
necticut was  at   least   in   part   a   liberal   protest 


146  A  Century  of  Science 

against  it.  In  New  Haven  it  was  soon  suppressed 
by  the  act  of  Charles  II.  which  put  an  end  to  the 
separate  existence  of  the  colony.  In  Massachu- 
setts, where  this  theocratic  policy  prevailed  for 
half  a  century,  the  result  was  the  growth  of  an 
unenfranchised  class  which  came  to  include  four 
fifths  of  the  community.  During  the  first  genera- 
tion, when  the  policy  was  administered  by  broad- 
minded,  sagacious  men  like  Winthrop  and  Cotton, 
its  evils  were  not  flagrant.  But  after  1650,  with 
such  fanatics  as  Norton  and  the  aged  Endicott  at 
the  helm,  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  rulers 
were  at  variance  on  many  points  with  the  mass 
of  the  people.  This  was  shown  with  glaring  force 
in  the  Quaker  persecution,  when  the  violence  of 
Endicott' s  party  produced  a  popular  reaction  of 
feeling,  which  enabled  the  Quakers  to  carry  their 
point  and  remain  in  the  colony  in  defiance  of 
statutes.  It  was  further  shown  in  the  Half-way 
Covenant  and  the  founding  of  the  Old  South 
Church  in  1669,  as  parts  of  a  movement  toward 
extending  the  suffrage  ;  and  again  in  the  rise  of 
the  Tory  party  under  the  lead  of  Joseph  Dudley, 
opposed  to  the  pretensions  of  the  clergy.  The 
magnificent  work  of  the  Massachusetts  theocracy 
in  resisting  the  crown  throughout  the  whole  reign 
of  Charles  II.  can  never  be  forgotten.     Notliing 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  147 

was  ever  done  in  America  that  contributed  more 
toward  the  maintenance  of  political  freedom.  But 
in  spite  of  its  merits,  the  faults  of  the  theocracy- 
were  such  that  we  cannot  regret  its  speedy  over- 
throw. When  that  overthrow  was  effected,  by  the 
charter  of  1692,  there  were  a  great  many  people 
in  Massachusetts  more  or  less  hostile  to  the  kind 
of  Puritanism  entertained  by  their  grandfathers, 
and  thus  prepared  for  a  more  liberal  mental  habit. 
There  was  also  a  marked  secularization  of  thought, 
a  diminution  of  interest  in  theological  problems, 
and  a  deadening  of  religious  zeal.  A  wonderful 
series  of  changes  was  set  on  foot  by  the  writings 
and  preaching  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  the 
group  of  revivals  between  1735  and  1750  known 
as  "  the  Great  Awakening."  Few  figures  in  his- 
tory are  more  pathetic  or  more  sublime  than  that 
of  Jonathan  Edwards  in  the  lonely  woodlands  of 
Northampton  and  Stockbridge,  a  thinker  for  depth 
and  acuteness  surpassed  by  not  many  that  have 
lived,  a  man  with  the  soul  of  poet  and  prophet, 
wrestling  with  the  most  terrible  problems  that 
humanity  has  ever  encountered,  with  more  than 
the  courage  and  candour  of  Augustine  or  Calvin, 
with  all  the  lofty  inspiration  of  Fichte  or  Novalis. 
An  interesting  historical  essay  might  be  devoted 
to  tracing  the  effects  wrought  upon  New  England 


148  A  Century  of  Science 

by  this  giant  personality.  The  Great  Awakening, 
in  which  he  took  part,  and  to  which  his  preaching 
powerfully  contributed,  revived  the  popular  inter- 
est in  theological  questions,  disencumbered  of  the 
ever  present  political  implications  of  the  previous 
century.  In  many  ways  his  theories  acted  as  a 
disintegrating  solvent  upon  the  beliefs  of  the  time. 
For  example,  the  prominence  which  he  gave  to 
spiritual  conversion,  or  what  was  called  "  change 
of  heart,"  brought  about  the  overthrow  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Half-way  Covenant.  It  also  weakened 
the  logical  basis  of  infant  baptism,  and  led  to  the 
winning  of  hosts  of  converts  by  the  Baptists. 
Moreover,  the  uses  to  which  Edwards  put  his  doc- 
trine of  the  will  produced  a  reaction  toward  Ar- 
minianism,  which  not  only  affected  the  teachings 
of  the  Baptists,  but  predisposed  many  persons  to 
join  in  the  wave  of  Methodism  which  was  just 
about  to  sweep  over  the  country.  A  similar  re- 
action against  Edwards's  views  of  divine  justice, 
reinforced  by  some  first  faint  inklings  of  Biblical 
criticism,  pointed  the  way  toward  Universalism. 
Still  more,  the  discussions  aroused  by  Edwards's 
speculations  on  origmal  sin  and  the  atonement  be- 
gan to  undermine  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and 
prepare  men's  minds  for  the  Unitarian  movement. 
No  such  results  would  have  been  possible  save  in 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  149 

a  country  where  education  was  universal  and  the 
Sunday  sermon  a  favourite  theme  of  discussion. 
Sooner  or  later,  the  perpetual  appeal  to  reason, 
with  the  familiar  use  of  metaphysical  arguments 
and  citations  of  Scripture,  must  lead  to  novelties 
of  doctrine  and  to  negative  criticism ;  while  for  the 
education  of  the  popular  intelligence  nothing  could 
be  more  effective.  In  seventeenth-century  Puri- 
tanism, therefore,  in  spite  of  its  rigid  narrowness, 
there  were  latent  the  speculations  of  an  Edwards, 
the  further  conclusions  to  which  some  of  them 
were  pushed,  the  reactions  against  them,  the  keen 
edge  of  the  critical  faculty  in  New  England,  and 
much  of  the  free  thinking  of  a  later  age. 

In  the  course  of  the  eighteenth  century  some  in- 
fluence was  doubtless  exercised  in  America  by  the 
English  deists,  and  at  the  very  end  of  the  century 
by  Thomas  Paine.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  any  appreciable  effect  was  produced  by  the 
atheism  of  the  French  encyclopaedists,  which  was 
mainly  a  reaction,  largely  emotional  and  aided  by 
the  shallowest  of  metaphysics,  against  the  effete 
ecclesiastical  system  in  France.  It  was  too  remote 
from  American  ideas  to  exert  much  influence  here. 
The  deism  of  Voltaire  found  a  few  scattered 
admirers.  A  quiet  religion  of  humanity,  which 
set  little  store  by  miracles,  or  abstruse  doctrines, 


150  A  Century  of  Science 

or  the  divine  authority  of  Scripture,  was  held  by 
a  number  of  eminent  persons  of  strong  prosaic 
common  sense  and  feeble  spirituality,  among  whom 
may  be  named  Franklin  and  Jefferson  and  John 
Adams.  This  phase  of  free  thought  was  of  con- 
siderable importance,  but  the  dominant  influence 
in  New  England  down  to  the  rise  of  the  transcen- 
dental movement  was  that  which  could  be  traced 
back  to  Edwards. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  the 
most  advanced  phase  of  liberal  thought,  repre- 
sented by  the  Unitarians  in  Massachusetts,  was 
trying  to  hold  an  utterly  untenable  position,  half- 
way between  narrow  orthodoxy  and  untrammelled 
free  thinking,  when  the  ground  began  to  be  cut 
from  under  it  by  the  transcendentalists,  whose 
native  temperaments,  not  wanting  in  kinship  with 
that  of  Edwards,  were  stimulated  by  a  brief  con- 
tact with  Kantian  and  post-Kantian  speculation  in 
Germany.  In  Emerson's  poetic  soul  the  result  was 
a  seminal  influence  upon  high  thinking,  in  America 
and  in  the  Old  World,  the  power  of  which  we 
cannot  but  feel,  but  which  it  is  as  yet  too  soon 
to  estimate.  In  the  middle  of  the  century  some 
wholesome  destructive  work  still  needed  to  be 
done,  and  it  was  well  done.  When  German  criti- 
cism, with  the  other  weapons  in  the  powerful  hands 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  151 

of  Theodore  Parker,  freed  us  from  the  spectre  of 
bibliolatry,  it  might  indeed  be  said  that  the  pro- 
mise of  the  Protestant  Reformation  was  at  length 
fulfilled.  The  change  wrought  in  the  Unitarian 
church  since  Parker  began  his  preaching  has  been 
to  some  extent  followed  by  analogous  changes  in 
other  churches.  On  every  side,  the  last  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century  has  been  preeminently  the 
age  of  the  decomposition  of  orthodoxies.  Here 
and  there  and  everywhere  they  are  crumbling  into 
ruins  ;  and  as  the  world  has  long  since  left  be- 
hind the  age  of  trilobites  and  the  age  of  dinosaurs, 
so  in  the  world  to  which  we  are  coming  there  will 
be  neither  a  place  nor  a  use  for  orthodoxies. 

For,  as  I  must  observe  in  conclusion,  there  is 
all  about  us  a  resistless  and  world-wide  influence 
at  work,  to  which  all  the  temporary  and  local 
causes  I  have  mentioned  have  been  but  the  minis- 
tering servants.  From  age  to  age,  our  knowledge 
is  growing  from  more  to  more.  From  the  discov- 
ery of  America,  from  the  astronomy  of  Copernicus 
and  the  physics  of  Galileo,  down  to  the  universal 
doctrine  of  evolution  in  our  own  time,  there  has 
been  one  grand  coherent  and  consecutive  tale  of 
ever  enlarging,  ever  more  organized  knowledge  of 
the  world  in  which  we  live.  By  this  enlarged  ex- 
perience our  minds  are  affected,  from  day  to  day 


152  A  Century  of  Science 

and  from  year  to  year,  in  more  ways  than  we  can 
detect  or  enumerate.  It  opens  our  minds  to  some 
notions,  and  makes  them  incurably  hostile  to  others ; 
so  that,  for  example,  new  truths  well-nigh  beyond 
comprehension,  like  some  of  those  connected  with 
the  luminiferous  ether,  are  accepted,  and  old  be- 
liefs once  universal,  like  witchcraft,  are  scornfully 
rejected.  Vast  changes  in  mental  attitude  are  thus 
wrought  before  it  is  generally  realized.  Into  the 
new  scheme  of  things  old  beliefs  no  longer  fit,  and 
are  therefore  thrown  aside  and  forgotten.  Now 
our  orthodoxies  are  of  older  date  than  the  goodly 
fabric  of  modern  knowledge.  They  are  the  out- 
come of  more  primitive  and  childlike  thinking,  they 
have  ceased  to  fit  the  world  as  we  know  it,  and 
therefore  they  fade  and  fall  away  from  us,  in  spite 
of  all  our  efforts  to  retain  undisturbed  the  venera- 
ble and  hallowed  associations.  In  this  inevitable 
struggle  there  has  always  been  more  or  less  pain, 
and  hence  free  thought  has  not  usually  been  popu- 
lar. It  has  come  to  our  life  feast  as  a  guest  un- 
bidden and  unwelcome ;  but  it  has  come  to  stay 
with  us,  and  already  proves  more  genial  than  was 
expected.  Deadening,  cramping  finality  has  lost 
its  charm  for  him  who  has  tasted  of  the  ripe  fruit 
of  the  tree  of  laiowledge.  In  this  broad  uni- 
verse of  God's  wisdom  and   love,  not  leashes  to 


Liberal  Thought  in  America  153 

restrain  us  are  needed,  but  wings  to  sustain  our 
flight.  Let  bold  but  reverent  thought  go  on  and 
probe  creation's  mysteries,  till  faith  and  know- 
ledge "  make  one  music  as  before,  but  vaster." 

October,  1895. 


VI 

SIR  HARRY  VANEi 

With  the  single  exception  of  Cromwell,  the 
greatest  statesman  of  the  heroic  age  of  Puritanism 
was  unquestionably  the  younger  Henry  Vane.  He 
did  as  much  as  any  one  to  compass  the  downfall 
of  Strafford ;  he  brought  the  military  strength  of 
Scotland  to  the  aid  of  the  hard-pressed  Parliament ; 
he  administered  the  navy  with  which  Blake  won 
his  astonishing  victories  ;  he  dared  even  withstand 
Cromwell  at  the  height  of  his  power,  when  his  mea- 
sures savoured  too  much  of  violence.  After  the 
death  of  Pym  in  1643,  Sir  Henry  Vane,  then 
thirty-one  years  of  age,  was  the  foremost  man  in 
the  Long  Parliament,  and  so  remained  as  long 
as  that  Parliament  controlled  the  march  of  events. 
As  Baxter  said,  "  he  was  that  within  the  House 
that  Cromwell  was  without."  Yet  before  the  be- 
ginning of  his   brilliant    career    in  England,  this 

^  The  Life  of  Young  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Governor  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  and  Leader  of  the  Long  Parliament.  With  a  Con- 
sideration of  the  English  Commonwealth  as  a  Forecast  of 
America.  By  James  K.  Hosmer.  Boston  :  Houghton,  Mifflin  & 
Co.    1888. 


Sir  Harry  Vane  155 

young  man  had  written  his  name  indelibly  upon 
one  of  the  earliest  pages  in  the  history  of  the 
American  people.  It  is  pleasant  to  remember 
that  this  admirable  man  was  once  the  chief  magis- 
trate of  an  American  conunonwealth.  Thorough 
republican  and  enthusiastic  lover  of  liberty,  he  was 
spiritually  akin  to  Jefferson  and  to  Samuel  Adams. 
His  career  furnishes  an  excellent  illustration  of  Mr. 
Doyle's  remark,  that  ''  by  looking  at  the  colony  of 
Massachusetts,  we  can  see  what  sort  of  a  common- 
wealth was  constructed  by  the  best  men  of  the  Puri- 
tan party,  and  to  some  extent  what  they  would 
have  made  of  the  government  of  England  if  they 
could  have  had  their  way  unchecked." 

An  adequate  biography  of  this  great  statesman 
was  a  thing  much  to  be  desired.  Half  a  century 
ago  Mr.  C.  W.  Upham  contributed  to  Sparks' s 
"  American  Biography  "  an  interesting  life  of 
Vane ;  and  about  the  same  time  Mr.  John  Forster, 
in  his  "  Statesmen  of  the  Commonwealth,"  made  a 
sketch  characterized  by  his  usual  brilliancy.  But 
both  these  writers  indulged  themselves  in  that  kind 
of  indiscriminate  eulogy  which  used  in  those  days 
to  be  thought  necessary  for  biographers  ;  and  by 
way  of  foil  to  their  hero  they  seemed  to  feel  bound 
to  underrate  and  misinterpret  Cromwell,  even  as 
Carlyle  seemed  to  think  he  was  exalting  the  great 


156  A  Century  of  Science 

Protector  in  belittling  Vane.  The  remarkable  ad- 
vance in  fairness  and  breadth  of  view  which  histori- 
cal studies  have  made  within  the  last  fifty  years 
is  nowhere  better  illustrated  than  in  the  spirit  in 
which  the  seventeenth  century  in  England  is  treated 
by  Masson  and  Gardiner  as  contrasted  with  Ma- 
caulay.  It  is  no  longer  the  fashion  to  depict  indi- 
viduals or  parties  as  wholly  saintlike  or  quite  the 
reverse,  and  it  is  beginning  to  be  practically  recog- 
nized that  there  are  two  sides  to  almost  every  ques- 
tion. 

The  need  for  an  adequate  life  of  Sir  Harry  Vane 
has  been  most  thoroughly  and  admirably  satisfied 
by  Mr.  Hosmer.  As  a  biography  and  as  a  histori- 
cal monograph,  it  deserves  to  be  ranked  among  the 
best  books  of  the  day.  It  paints  a  lifelike  picture 
of  the  man,  and  it  describes,  in  a  broad,  generous 
spirit  and  with  keen  philosophical  insight,  the 
causal  succession  of  events  in  one  of  the  most 
momentous  political  contests  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  We  are  getting  far  enough  away  from  the 
seventeenth  century  to  realize  the  critical  impor- 
tance of  the  struggle  in  which  kingship  was  struck 
down  in  England  just  as  it  was  attaining  unchecked 
supremacy  in  all  the  other  great  nations  of  Europe. 
We  can  put  the  Great  Rebellion  into  its  proper 
place  in  the  series  of  conflicts  which  have  so  far 


Sir  Harry  Vane  157 

resulted  in  spreading  constitutional  government 
far  and  wide  over  two  hemispheres  ;  and  we  can 
begin  to  see  how  disastrous  in  its  consequences 
would  have  been  the  victory  of  the  Cavaliers,  true 
and  grallant  men  as  most  of  them  doubtless  were. 
Without  dealing  too  much  in  generalities,  Mr. 
Hosmer's  narrative  keeps  before  us  the  gravity 
of  the  issues  at  stake,  while  our  attention  is  sel- 
dom drawn  away  from  the  powerful  but  quiet  and 
gracious  personality  that  occupies  the  centre  of  the 
canvas.  It  is  customary  for  great  eras  to  live  in 
the  twilight  of  popular  memory  in  association  with 
some  one  surpassing  name,  while  other  heroes  of 
the  time  are  dimly  remembered  or  quite  forgotten. 
The  work  of  these  other  men  gets  unconsciously 
transferred  to  the  credit  of  the  most  brilliant  or 
striking  hero,  as  Hamilton,  for  example,  is  apt 
to  get  associated  not  merely  with  his  own  all-im- 
portant achievements,  but  likewise  with  those  of 
Madison  and  the  Federal  Convention  generally. 
In  accordance  with  this  labour-saving  habit  of 
mind,  the  Great  Kebellion  in  popular  memory 
means  Oliver  Cromwell,  while  such  men  as  Eliot 
and  Pym,  Fairfax  and  Ireton,  are  passed  over  ;  and 
if  Hampden  stays,  it  is  partly  due  to  the  often- 
quoted  line  of  the  poet  Gray.  So  there  are  many 
who  know  Vane  only  through  Milton's  sonnet,  — 


158  A  Century  of  Science 

itself  perhaps  the  noblest  literary  tribute  ever  paid 
to  a  statesman.  In  Mr.  Hosmer's  pages  Sir  Harry 
lives  again,  one  of  the  brightest  figures  of  the  Pu- 
ritan age,  cheerful  and  affectionate,  full  of  sacred 
enthusiasm,  yet  shrewd  and  self-contained.  "  He 
was  indeed  a  man  of  extraordinary  parts,  a  plea- 
sant wit,  a  great  understanding  which  pierced  into 
and  discerned  the  purposes  of  men  with  wonderful 
sagacity,  whilst  he  had  himself  vultum  clausum, 
that  no  man  could  make  a  guess  of  what  he  in- 
tended." So  says  Clarendon,  who  loved  him  not, 
but  could  not  help  admiring  the  skill  which,  at  the 
most  critical  moment  of  the  war,  when  many  stout 
adherents  of  the  parliamentary  cause  were  inclined 
to  abandon  it  as  lost,  all  at  once  brought  light  out 
of  darkness,  as  the  signing  of  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant  summoned  Alexander  Leslie  and 
twenty  thousand  brawny  Scots  across  the  border 
to  stand  side  by  side  with  Cromwell  and  Fairfax 
at  Marston  Moor.  In  later  days  it  became  matter 
of  common  report  that  the  northern  Covenanters 
had  fallen  a  prey  to  the  wiles  of  "that  sweet 
youth,"  and  allowed  themselves  to  be  hoodwinked 
and  cozened  by  "  sly  Sir  Harry,"  until,  in  the  hope 
of  establishing  Presbyterianism  south  of  the  Tweed, 
they  lent  themselves  to  the  work  of  setting  the 
monster  Independency  upon  its  feet.     Mr.  Hosmer 


Sir  Harry  Vane  159 

carefully  examines  this  charge,  and,  we  think,  suc- 
cessfully refutes  it.  It  was  neither  the  first  nor 
the  last  contract  on  record  which  has  afterward 
come  to  receive  conflicting  interpretations  from  the 
two  parties  without  any  tricksome  intent  on  either 
side.  "  The  Scots,"  says  Mr.  Hosmer,  "  under- 
stood that  England  assumed  their  own  narrow 
Presbyterianism,  with  its  complete  intolerance ; 
Vane  and  his  friends  gave  the  instrument  a  differ- 
ent interpretation,  which  they  honestly  felt  it  would 
bear."  The  amendments  which  Vane  partly  suc- 
ceeded in  engrafting  upon  the  Scottish  proposals 
at  Edinburgh  are  sufficient  evidence  of  his  straight- 
forwardness. It  was  plain  enough  that,  in  making 
a  league  to  overcome  the  King,  the  Scots  wanted 
one  thing,  while  the  English  wanted  another. 
Vane  did  not  hide  this  fact ;  to  have  emphasized 
it  would  have  been  to  forfeit  all  claim  to  diplo- 
matic tact.  His  part  in  the  memorable  negotia- 
tion is  tersely  summed  up  by  Clarendon  :  "  Sir 
Harry  Vane  was  one  of  the  commissioners,  and 
therefore  the  others  need  not  be  named,  since  he 
was  all  in  any  business  where  others  were  joined 
with  him."  In  the  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms 
which  the  league  created  he  was  equally  effective, 
and  it  was  mainly  through  his  persistent  dexterity 
that  the  committee  acquired  the  control  of  military 


160  A  Century  of  Science 

affairs,  and  thus  gave  to  the  operations  of  the  par- 
liamentary army  that  unity  which  they  had  hitherto 
lacked. 

The  firstfruits  of  Vane's  diplomacy  were  Mar- 
ston  Moor  and  Naseby,  and  it  would  be  unreason- 
able to  find  fault  with  Mr.  Hosmer  for  pausing  to 
describe  those  battles.  They  are  brilliant  episodes 
in  his  narrative.  We  have  nowhere  seen  the  two 
battles  more  lucidly  explained.  The  author  has 
been  himself  a  soldier,  and  has  looked  at  the 
ground  with  a  military  eye.  One  quite  envies 
him  the  pleasant  journey,  as  on  his  tricycle  he 
follows  the  route  of  the  Ironsides  over  the  smooth 
roads  and  smiling  fields  of  Merry  England.  His 
pages  are  redolent  of  the  mellow  cheer  and  fra- 
grance of  the  summer  day  under  that  mild  north- 
ern sun.  One  catches,  with  the  author,  the  spirit 
of  the  deadly  fight,  and  realizes,  as  Naseby  spire 
fades  away  in  the  distance,  the  gravity  of  the  crisis 
and  the  completeness  of  the  victory.  Said  stout 
old  Sir  Jacob  Astley,  when  the  Roundheads  took 
him  captive  a  few  months  afterward,  "  Gentlemen, 
ye  may  now  sit  down  and  play,  for  you  have  done 
all  your  work,  if  you  fall  not  out  among  your- 
selves." 

They  were  already  falling  out  among  them- 
selves ;  how  seriously,  Dunbar  and  Worcester  were 


Sir  Harry  Vane  161 

by  and  by  to  show.  "  Their  own  generation," 
says  Mr.  Hosmer,  "  believed  that  the  Independents 
drew  their  origin  from  America."  Certainly  there 
had  been  witnessed  in  Boston,  in  the  year  when 
Harvard  College  was  founded,  some  noteworthy 
manifestations  of  Independency,  and  scenes  had 
been  enacted  which  had  left  a  deep  impress  upon 
Sir  Harry's  youthful  mind.  In  1635  the  gossips 
wrote :  "  Sir  Henry  Vane  hath  as  good  as  lost  his 
eldest  son,  who  is  gone  into  New  England  for  con- 
science' sake  ;  he  likes  not  the  discipline  of  the 
Church  of  England  ;  ...  no  persuasions  of  our 
bishops  nor  authority  of  his  parents  could  prevail 
with  him ;  let  him  go."  The  fascinating  boy  ar- 
rived in  Boston  in  October,  1635,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing March,  having  won  all  hearts,  was  elected 
governor  of  Massachusetts.  He  witnessed  the  Pe- 
quot  war,  the  beautiful  heroism  and  rare  diplomacy 
of  Roger  Williams,  and  the  bitter  strife  which 
ensued  upon  the  teachings  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson. 
Mr.  Hosmer  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  the  life  in  the 
little  colony,  the  theological  warfare,  and  the  pas- 
sionate tears  of  the  young  man  as  the  difficulties 
thickened  around  him.  Perhaps  his  indiscreet 
threat  of  an  appeal  to  the  throne  in  favour  of 
the  Antinomians,  as  he  sailed  for  England  in  the 
summer  of  1637,  may  have  served  to  hasten  the 


162  A  Century  of  Science 

banishment  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  ;  but  the  lesson 
of  toleration  was  already  taking  shape  in  his  mind, 
as  was  clearly  shown  in  his  controversy  with  Win- 
throp.  His  friendly  relations  with  Koger  Williams 
began  at  the  time  of  the  Pequot  war  ;  and  in  1643, 
'  when  Williams  visited  England  in  quest  of  a  char- 
ter for  Rhode  Island,  he  was  Vane's  guest  at  his 
house  in  London,  and  also  at  his  country  seat  in 
Lincolnshire.  It  was  then  that  Williams  wrote 
that  noble  book,  "  The  Bloudy  Tenent  of  Perse- 
cution for  Cause  of  Conscience,"  in  the  preface  to 
which  he  thus  refers  to  his  friend :  "  Mine  ears 
were  glad  and  late  witnesses  of  an  heavenly  speech 
of  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  that  High  Assembly 
of  Parliament :  WTiy  should  the  labours  of  any 
be  suppressed,  if  sober,  though  never  so  different? 
We  now  profess  to  seek  God,  we  desire  to  see 
light  !  "  ^  Mr.  Hosmer  gives  in  facsimile  a  touch- 
ing letter  from  Vane  to  Winthrop  in  1645,  in  which 
he  urges  his  friends  in  New  England  to  respect  the 
liberty  of  conscience. 

In  1648,  in  order  to  save  the  cause  of  liberty 
from  losing  to  intrigue  and  chicanery  all  the 
ground  it  had  won  by  the  sword,  the  Ironsides 
felt  themselves  called  upon  to  take  things  into 
their  own  hands.     This  period  of   the  story,  ex- 

1  See  my  Beginnings  of  New  England,  p.  185. 


Sir  Harry  Vane  163 

tending  to  the  forcible  dissolution  of  the  Rump 
Parliament  in  1653,  Mr.  Hosmer  treats  under  the 
rubric  of  American  England.  For  the  moment, 
the  spirit  of  Independency,  which  reigned  supreme 
in  Massachusetts,  asserted  itself  in  England  in  the 
temporary  overthrow  of  the  crown  and  the  aristo- 
cracy. In  this  period  Sir  Harry  appears  as  the 
opponent  of  the  extreme  measures  of  his  party. 
He  heartily  disapproves  of  such  irregular  proceed- 
ings as  Pride's  Purge  and  the  execution  of  the 
King.  Here  is  shown  the  strong  conservatism  of 
temperament  of  this  law-abiding  American-English- 
man. He  had  all  the  ingrained  reverence  of  our 
sturdy  practical  race  for  constitutional  methods, 
and  withal  a  far-sighted  intelligence  that  could 
discern  ways  of  settling  the  difficulty  which  were 
for  the  moment  impracticable,  because  his  contem- 
poraries had  not  grown  up  to  them.  In  his  mind 
were  the  rudiments  of  the  idea  of  a  written  consti- 
tution, upon  which  a  new  government  for  England 
might  be  built,  with  powers  neatly  defined  and 
limited.  One  fancies  that  in  some  respects  he 
would  have  felt  himself  more  at  home  if  he  could 
have  been  suddenly  translated  from  the  Rump 
Parliament  of  1653  to  the  Federal  Convention 
of  1787,  in  which  immortal  assembly  there  sat 
perhaps   no  man  of   loftier    spirit    than    his.     It 


164  A  Century  of  Science 

was  natural*  enough  that  Cromwell,  whose  stern 
common  sense  discerned  the  practical  need  of  the 
moment  and  reluctantly  fulfilled  it,  should  cry, 
"  The  Lord  deliver  me  from  Sir  Harry  Vane !  " 
In  spite  of  this  antagonism  at  the  supreme  crisis, 
however,  the  Protector  recognized  the  worth  of  his 
opponent,  and  seems  to  have  borne  him  no  deep- 
seated  ill  will.  There  was  no  downright  break 
between  them  until  the  Healing  Question  came  up, 
in  1656. 

In  Vane's  last  years  there  seemed  to  be  some 
good  reasons  for  distrusting  his  judgment  on  prac- 
tical questions.  The  element' of  dreamy  enthusi- 
asm always  present  in  him  began  to  come  into  the 
foreground  as  his  more  sober  ideas  and  plans  were 
thwarted.  Some  of  his  latest  utterances  are  like 
the  rhapsodies  of  the  Fifth  Monarchists.  Herein 
again  appears  his  spiritual  kinship  with  his  friends 
in  Massachusetts.  The  theocratic  ideal  of  the 
founders  of  Massachusetts,  as  developed  freely  in 
the  American  wilderness,  was  kept  within  rational 
bounds  ;  but  if  hemmed  in  by  such  inexorable  cir- 
cumstances as  checked  the  early  growth  of  repub- 
licanism in  England,  it  would  very  likely  have 
flowered  grotesquely  enough  in  Fifth  Monarchist 
vagaries.  From  Edward  Johnson,  of  Woburn, 
author    of   the    "  Wonder- Working    Providence," 


Sir  Harry  Vane  165 

there  often  came  the  dithyrambic  utterances  of  an 
extreme  Fifth  Monarchy  man. 

When  Charles  II.  came  back  to  his  father's 
throne,  there  was  but  one  thing  to  be  done  with 
such  a  representative  republican  as  Sir  Harry 
Vane.  His  head  must  come  off,  for  there  was  not 
room  enough  in  England  to  hold  him  and  the  son 
of  Charles  I.  at  the  same  time.  He  died  on  Tower 
Hill,  with  all  the  fearlessness  and  charming  sweet- 
ness that  had  always  marked  his  life.  His  mem- 
ory is  a  precious  possession  for  all  coming  genera- 
tions ;  and  the  book  in  which  Mr.  Hosmer  has  told 
the  story  of  his  life,  with  such  warm  sympathy  and 
such  broad  intelligence,  is  worthy  of  its  subject. 

January,  1889. 


VII 
THE    ARBITRATION   TREATY 

After  negotiations  which  had  been  pending  for 
nearly  two  years,  the  general  Arbitration  Treaty 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  was 
signed  on  the  11th  of  January  [1897]  by  Mr. 
Richard  Olney  and  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote,  repre- 
senting the  two  countries  concerned;  and  on  the 
following  day  the  document  was  sent  by  President 
Cleveland  to  the  Senate  for  ratification.  The  pro- 
visions of  this  important  treaty  may  be  summarized 
as  foUows :  — 

It  is  expected  that  differences  arising  between 
the  two  countries  will  ordinarily  admit  of  settle- 
ment by  the  customary  methods  of  diplomacy.  It 
is  only  with  cases  where  such  customary  methods 
fail  that  the  provisions  of  the  present  treaty  are 
concerned ;  and  the  parties  hereby  agree  to  sub- 
mit all  such  cases  to  arbitration  after  the  manner 
herein  provided. 

The  "  questions  in  difference  "  that  are  liable  to 
arise  are  arranged  in  three  grades  or  classes :  (1) 
small  pecuniary  claims ;  (2)  large  pecuniary  claims, 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  167 

and  others  not  involving  questions  of  territory; 
(3)  territorial  claims.  For  each  of  these  grades 
there  is  to  be  a  special  method  of  settlement. 

First,  "  all  pecuniary  claims  or  groups  of  claims, 
which  in  the  aggi*egate  do  not  exceed  $500,000  in 
amount  and  do  not  involve  the  determination  of 
territorial  claims,"  shall  be  decided  by  a  tribunal 
constituted  as  follows:  "Each  party  shall  nomi- 
nate one  arbitrator,  who  shall  be  a  jurist  of  repute, 
and  the  two  arbitrators  so  nominated  shall,  within 
two  months  of  their  nomination,  select  an  umpire. 
In  the  event  of  their  failing  to  do  so  within  the 
limit  of  time,  the  umpire  shall  be  appointed  by  agree- 
ment between  the  members  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  and  the  members  of  the  Judicial 
Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  in  Great  Britain." 
In  case  these  persons  fail  to  agree  upon  an  umpire 
within  three  months,  the  King  of  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way shall  appoint  one.  Among  public  personages 
of  unquestionable  dignity  and  importance,  this  sov- 
ereign is  as  likely  as  any  to  be  free  from  bias 
against  either  the  United  States  or  Great  Britain; 
but  shoidd  either  party  object  to  him,  they  may 
adopt  a  substitute,  if  they  can  agree  upon  one.  It 
does  not  seem  likely  that  the  failure  to  select  an 
umpire  would  often  reach  the  stage  where  an  ap- 
peal to  the    Swedish  King  would   be  necessary. 


168  A  Century  of  /Science 

The  umpire,  when  and  however  appointed,  shall 
be  president  of  the  tribunal  of  three,  and  the  award 
of  a  majority  of  the  members  shall  be  final.  Un- 
der these  provisions,  it  may  be  expected  that  all 
petty  claims  can  be  disposed  of  without  unreason- 
able delay,  and  with  as  little  risk  of  unfairness  as 
one  would  find  in  any  court  whatever. 

Secondly,  "all  pecuniary  claims  or  groups  of 
claims  exceeding  §500,000,  and  all  other  matters 
in  respect  whereof  either  of  the  parties  shall  have 
rights  against  the  other,  under  the  treaty  or  other- 
wise, provided  they  do  not  involve  territorial 
claims,"  shall  be  dealt  with  as  follows  :  Such  claims 
must  be  submitted  to  the  tribunal  of  three,  as 
above  described,  and  its  award,  if  unanimous, 
shall  be  final.  If  the  award  is  not  unanimous, 
either  party  may  demand  a  review  of  it,  but  such 
demand  must  be  made  within  six  months  from  the 
date  of  the  award.  In  such  case,  the  appellate 
tribunal  shall  consist  of  five  jurists  of  repute,  no 
one  of  whom  has  been  a  member  of  the  tribunal 
of  three  whose  award  is  to  be  reviewed.  Of  these 
five  jurists,  two  shall  be  selected  by  each  party, 
and  these  four  shall  agree  upon  their  umpire  within 
three  months  after  their  nomination.  In  case  of 
their  failure,  the  umpire  shall  be  selected  (as  in 
the  former  case)  by  the  members  of  the  Supreme 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  169 

Court  and  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council;  and  if  these  do  not  agree  within  three 
months,  the  selection  shall  be  left  (as  before)  to  the 
King  of  Sweden  and  Norway.  The  umpire,  when 
selected,  shall  preside.  The  award  of  the  tribunal 
of  three  shall  be  reviewed  by  this  tribunal  of  five, 
and  the  award  of  a  majority  of  the  five  shall  be 
final. 

Thirdly,  "  any  controversy  involving  the  deter- 
mination of  territorial  claims  shall  be  submitted  to 
a  tribunal  of  six  members,"  three  of  whom  shall  be 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  or  of  Circuit  Courts, 
to  be  nominated  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  The  other  three  shall  be  members  of  the 
highest  British  court  or  members  of  the  Judicial 
Committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  to  be  nominated 
by  the  Queen.  "Their  award  by  a  majority  of 
not  less  than  five  to  one  shall  be  final.  If  there  is 
less  than  the  prescribed  majority,  the  award  shall 
also  be  final,  unless  either  party  within  three 
months  protests  that  the  award  is  erroneous.  If 
the  award  is  protested,  or  if  the  members  of 
the  tribunal  are  equally  divided,  there  shall  be 
no  recourse  to  hostile  measures  of  any  descrip- 
tion until  the  mediation  of  one  or  more  friendly 
powers  shall  have  been  invited  by  one  or  the  other 
party."     It  is  also  provided  that  "where  one  of 


170  A  Century  of  Science 

the  United  States  or  a  British  colony  is  specially 
concerned,  the  President  or  Queen  may  make  a  ju- 
dicial officer  of  the  state  or  colony  an  arbitrator." 

In  some  cases,  a  question  may  be  removed  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  tribunal  of  three  or  the 
tribunal  of  five,  and  transferred  to  that  of  the 
tribunal  of  six.  If,  prior  to  the  close  of  the  hear- 
ing of  the  claim  before  the  lower  tribunal,  it  shall 
be  decided  by  the  tribunal,  upon  the  motion  of 
either  party,  that  the  determination  of  the  claim 
necessarily  involves  a  decision  of  some  "  disputed 
question  of  principle  of  grave  general  importance, 
affecting  the  national  rights  of  such  party  as  dis- 
tinct from  its  private  rights,  of  which  it  is  merely 
an  international  representative,"  then  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  lower  tribunal  over  the  claim  shaU  at 
once  cease,  and  it  shall  be  dealt  with  by  the  tri- 
bunal of  six. 

With  regard  to  territorial  claims,  a  special  arti- 
cle defines  them  as  including  not  only  all  claims  to 
territory,  but  also  "  aU  other  claims  involving  ques- 
tions of  servitude,  rights  of  navigation,  access  to 
fisheries,  and  all  rights  and  interests  necessary  to 
control  the  enjoyment  of  cither's  territory." 

The  treaty  is  to  remain  in  force  for  five  years 
from  the  date  at  which  it  becomes  operative,  and 
"  until  a  year  after  either  party  shall  have  notified 
the  other  of  its  wish  to  terminate  it."  _ 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  171 

The  first  impression  which  one  gets  from  read- 
ing the  treaty  is  that  it  is  strictly  defined  and  lim- 
ited in  its  application.  Yet,  when  duly  considered, 
it  seems  to  cover  all  chances  of  controversy  that 
are  likely  to  arise  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain.  Under  such  a  treaty  as  this,  nearly 
all  the  questions  at  issue  between  the  two  coun- 
tries since  1783  might  have  been  satisfactorily  ad- 
justed, —  the  payment  of  private  debts  to  British 
creditors,  the  relinquishment  of  the  frontier  posts 
by  British  garrisons,  the  northeastern  boundary, 
the  partition  of  the  Oregon  territory,  the  questions 
concerning  the  Newfoundland  fisheries,  the  navigar 
tion  of  the  Great  Lakes,  the  catching  of  seals  in 
Bering  Sea,  the  difference  of  opinion  over  the 
San  Juan  boundary,  etc.  Possibly  some  of  the  old 
questions  growing  out  of  the  African  slave  trade 
might  have  been  brought  within  its  purview,  but 
that  is  now  of  small  consequence,  since  no  issues  of 
that  sort  are  likely  ever  to  rise  again.  Differences 
attending  the  future  construction  of  a  Nicaragua 
canal,  regarded  as  an  easement  or  a  servitude 
possibly  affecting  vested  rights,  might,  under  a  lib- 
eral interpretation,  be  dealt  with;  and  one  may 
suppose  that  the  Venezuela  question  is  meant  to 
be  covered,  since  it  relates  to  territorial  claims  in 
which,  though  they  may  not  obviously  concern  the 


172  A  Century  of  Science 

United  States  either  immediately  or  remotely,  our 
government  has  with  unexpected  emphasis  declared 
itself  interested. 

On  the  other  hand,  one  does  not  seem  to  find  in 
the  treaty  any  provision  which  would  have  covered 
two  or  three  of  the  most  serious  questions  that  have 
ever  been  in  dispute  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain.  One  of  these  questions,  concern- 
ing the  right  of  search  and  the  impressment  of  sea^ 
men,  was  conspicuous  among  the  causes  of  the  ill- 
considered  and  deplorable  War  of  1812.  But  it 
may  be  presumed,  with  strong  probability,  that  no 
difficulty  of  that  kind  can  again  arise  between 
these  two  powers.  The  affair  of  the  Trent  in  1861 
seems  also  to  be  a  kind  of  case  not  provided  for. 
But  that  affair,  most  creditably  settled  at  a  mo- 
ment of  fierce  irritation  and  under  aggravating 
circumstances,  was  settled  in  such  wise  as  to  estab- 
lish a  great  principle  which  will  make  it  extremely 
difficult  for  such  a  case  to  occur  again.  As  for 
the  Alabama  Claims,  they  could  apparently  have 
been  adjusted  under  the  present  treaty,  as  large 
pecuniary  claims  involving  international  principles 
of  grave  general  importance. 

On  the  whole,  there  seems  to  be  small  likelihood 
of  any  dispute  arising  between  this  country  and 
Great  Britain  which  cannot  be  amicably  settled, 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  173 

with  reasonable  promptness,  under  the  provisions 
of  this  new  Arbitration  Treaty.  One  chief  desid- 
eratum in  any  such  instrument  is  to  secure  impar- 
tiality in  the  arbitrating  tribunals,  and  here  the 
arrangements  made  in  our  treaty  will  doubtless 
yield  as  good  results  as  can  ever  be  achieved 
through  mere  arrangements.  In  such  matters,  the 
best  of  machinery  is  of  less  consequence  than  the 
human  nature  by  which  the  machinery  is  to  be 
worked.  Impartiality,  not  only  real,  but  conspicu- 
ous and  unmistakable,  is  the  prime  requisite  in  a 
court  of  arbitration.  Its  life  and  health  can  be 
sustained  only  in  an  atmosphere  of  untainted  and  un- 
suspected integrity.  But  in  an  age  which  does  not 
yet  fully  comprehend  the  damnable  villainy  of  such 
maxims  as  "  Our  country,  right  or  wrong,"  gross 
partisanship  is  not  easy  to  eliminate  from  human 
nature.  Even  austere  judges,  taken  from  a  Su- 
preme Court,  have  sometimes  shown  themselves  to 
be  men  of  like  passions  with  ourselves.  It  would 
need  but  few  awards  made  on  the  "  eight  to  seven  " 
principle,  as  in  the  Electoral  Commission  of  1877, 
to  make  our  arbitrating  tribunal  the  laughing-stock 
of  the  world,  and  to  set  back  for  a  generation  or 
two  the  hand  upon  the  timepiece  of  civilization. 

A  general  experience,  however,  justifies    us  in 
hoping  much  better  things  from  the  group  of  in- 


174  A  Century  of  Science 

ternational  tribunals  contemplated  in  our  present 
treaty.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  good  work  is 
undertaken  in  entire  good  faith  by  both  nations ; 
both  earnestly  wish  to  make  international  arbitra- 
tion successful,  and  there  is  little  fear  that  the 
importance  of  fair  dealing  will  be  overlooked  or 
undervalued.  If  the  present  proceedings  result  in 
the  establishment  of  a  tribunal  whose  integrity  and 
impartiality  shall  win  the  permanent  confidence  of 
British  and  Americans  alike,  it  will  be  an  immense 
achievement,  fraught  with  incalculable  benefit  to 
mankind.  For  the  first  time,  the  substitution  of 
international  lawsuits  for  warfare  will  have  been 
systematically  begun  by  two  of  the  leading  nations 
of  the  world ;  and  an  event  which  admits  of  such  a 
description  cannot  be  without  many  consequences, 
enduring  and  profound. 

For  observe  that  the  interest  of  the  present 
treaty  lies  not  so  much  in  the  fact  that  it  provides 
for  arbitration  as  in  the  fact  that  it  aims  at  mak- 
ing arbitration  the  regular  and  permanent  method 
of  settling  international  disputes.  In  due  propor- 
tion to  the  gravity  of  the  problem  is  the  modest 
caution  with  which  it  is  approached.  The  treaty 
merely  asks  to  be  tried  on  its  merits,  and  only  for 
five  years  at  that.  Only  for  such  a  brief  period  is 
the   most   vociferous  Jingo  in  the  United  States 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  175 

Senate  or  elsewhere  asked  to  put  a  curb  upon  his 
sanguinary  propensities  and  see  what  will  happen. 
Nay,  if  we  really  prefer  war  to  peace ;  if,  like  the 
giant  in  the  nursery  tale,  we  are  thirsting  for 
a  draught  of  British  blood,  neither  this  nor  any 
other  treaty  could  long  restrain  us.  As  Hosea 
Biglow  truly  observes, — 

"  The  right  to  be  a  cussed  fool 

Is  safe  from  all  devices  human.** 

It  has  been  rumoured  that  some  Senators  will  vote 
against  the  treaty,  in  order  to  show  their  spite 
against  President  Cleveland  and  Mr.  Olney.  If  the 
treaty  should  fail  of  confirmation  through  such  a 
cause,  it  would  be  no  more  than  has  happened  be- 
fore. Members  of  the  Sapsea  family  have  sat  in 
other  chambers  than  those  of  the  Capitol  at  Wash- 
ington. But,  as  a  rule,  good  causes  have  not  long 
been  hindered  through  such  pettiness,  and  should 
the  treaty  thus  fail  for  the  moment,  it  would  not 
be  ruined,  but  only  delayed.  In  any  event,  it  is 
not  Hkely  to  be  long  in  acquiring  its  five  years' 
lease  of  life.  If  during  that  time  nothing  should 
occur  to  discredit  it,  even  should  no  cases  arise  to 
call  it  into  operation,  its  purpose  is  so  much  in  har- 
mony with  the  most  enlightened  spirit  of  the  age 
that  it  is  pretty  sure  to  be  renewed.  Should  cases 
arise    under  it,  the   machinery  which  it  provides 


176  A  Century  of  Science 

is  confessedly  provisional  and  tentative,  and  upon 
renewal  can  be  modified  in  such  wise  as  may  seem 
desirable.  Other  human  institutions  have  been 
moulded  by  experience,  and  so,  doubtless,  it  will 
be  with  international  courts  of  arbitration. 

The  working  of  the  tribunals  created  by  the  pre- 
sent treaty  will  be  carefuUy  watched  by  other  na- 
tions than  the  two  parties  directly  concerned,  and 
should  it  achieve  any  notable  success  it  will  furnish 
a  precedent  likely  to  be  imitated.  The  removal  of 
any  source  of  irritation  at  all  comparable  to  the 
Alabama  Claims  would  be,  of  course,  a  success  of 
the  first  magnitude ;  great  good,  with  far-reaching 
consequences,  might  be  wrought  by  a  much  smaller 
one.  Probably  few  readers  are  aware  of  the  ex- 
tent to  which  the  arbitration  at  Geneva  in  1872 
has  already  served  as  a  precedent  for  the  peaceful 
solution  of  international  difficulties.^     Already  the 

1  The  following  list  of  instances  within  a  period  of  twelve  years 
is  cited  from  an  able  article  by  Professor  Pasquale  Fiore,  of  the 
University  of  Naples,  in  the  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  Octo- 
ber, 1896  :  — 

Arbitration  by  the  Emperor  of  Austria  between  Great  Britain 
and  Nicaragua,  1881. 

A  mixed  commission  to  arbitrate  between  France  and  Chili,  1882. 

Arbitration  by  the  President  of  the  French  Republic  between 
the  Netherlands  and  the  Republic  of  San  Domingo,  1882. 

Arbitration  by  Pope  Leo  XIII.  between  Germany  and  Spain  ; 
affair  of  the  Caroline  Islands,  1885. 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  177 

moral  effect  of  that  event  has  been  such  as  to  sug- 
gest that  it  may  hereafter  be  commemorated  as  the 
illustrious  herald  of  a  new  era.  The  Geneva  event 
was  brought  about  by  a  treaty  specially  framed  for 
the  purpose,  and  might  thus  be  regarded  as  excep- 
tional or  extraordinary  in  its  nature.  Still  greater, 
then,  would  be  the  moral  effect  of  a  similar  success 
achieved  by  a  tribunal  created  under  the  provisions 
of  a  permanent  treaty. 

The  commission  to  arbitrate  between  the  Argentine  Bepublic 
and  Brazil,  1886. 

Arbitration  by  Spain  between  Colombia  and  Venezuela,  1887. 

Arbitration  by  the  minister  of  Spain  at  Bogotd  between  Italy 
and  Colombia,  1887. 

Arbitration  by  President  Cleveland  between  Nicaragua  and 
Costa  Rica,  1888. 

Arbitration  by  the  Queen  of  Spain  between  Peru  and  Ecuador, 
1888. 

Arbitration  by  Baron  Lambermont  between  England  and  Ger- 
many ;  aifair  of  Lamoo,  1888. 

Arbitration  by  the  Czar  of  Russia  between  France  and  the 
Netherlands  ;  affair  of  the  boundaries  of  Guinea,  1888. 

Arbitration  by  Sir  Edward  Momson  between  Denmark  and 
Sweden,  1888. 

Compromise  between  the  United  States  and  Venezuela,  1890. 

Compromise  between  Germany,  the  United  States,  and  Great 
Britain  ;  affair  of  Terranova,  1891. 

Arbitration  by  Switzerland  between  England,  the  United  States, 
and  Portugal ;  affair  of  the  railroads  at  Delagoa  Bay,  1891. 

Arbitration  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  re- 
lating to  the  question  of  the  delimitation  of  territorial  power  in 
Bering  Sea,  1893. 


178  A  Century  of  Science 

It  may  be  urged  that  arbitration  cannot  often 
succeed  in  dealing  with  difficulties  so  formidable 
as  those  connected  with  the  Alabama  Claims.  The 
questions  hitherto  settled  by  arbitration  have  for 
the  most  part  been  of  minor  importance,  in  which 
"  national  honour  "  has  not  been  at  stake,  and  the 
bestial  impulse  to  tear  and  bruise,  which  so  many 
light-headed  persons  mistake  for  patriotism,  has 
not  been  aroused.  The  London  "  Spectator  "  tells 
us  that  if  the  United  States  should  ever  repeat  the 
Mason  and  Slidell  incident,  or  should  feel  insulted 
by  the  speech  of  some  British  prime  minister,  there 
would  be  war,  no  matter  how  loudly  the  lawyers 
in  both  countries  might  appeal  to  the  Arbitration 
Treaty.  The  two  illustrations  cited  are  not  happy 
ones,  since  from  both  may  be  deduced  reasons 
why  war  is  not  likely  to  ensue.  The  Mason  and 
Slidell  incident  was  a  most  impressive  illustration 
of  the  value  of  delay  and  discussion  in  calming 
popular  excitement.  The  principle  of  interna- 
tional law  which  the  United  States  violated  on 
that  occasion  was  a  principle  for  which  the  United 
States  had  long  and  earnestly  contended  against 
the  opposition  of  Great  Britain.  A  very  brief  dis- 
cussion of  the  affair  in  the  American  press  made 
this  clear  to  every  one,  and  there  was  no  cavilling 
when  our  government  disowned  the  act  and  sur- 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  179 

rendered  the  prisoners  with  the  noble '  frankness 
which  characterized  President  Lincoln's  way  of 
doing  things.  What  chiefly  tended  to  hinder  or 
prevent  such  a  happy  termination  of  the  affair  was 
the  unnecessary  arrogance  of  Lord  Palmerston's 
government  in  making  its  demand  of  us.  What 
chiefly  favoured  it  was  the  absence  of  an  ocean  tele- 
graph, affording  the  delay  needful  for  sober  second 
thought.  I  remember  hearing  people  say  at  the 
time  that  the  breaking  of  the  first  Atlantic  cable 
in  1858  had  thus  turned  out  to  be  a  blessing  in 
disguise  !  Now,  should  any  incident  as  irritating 
as  the  Trent  affair  occur  in  future,  the  Arbitration 
Treaty  can  be  made  to  furnish  the  delay  which  the 
absence  of  an  oaean  cable  once  necessitated ;  and 
I  have  enough  respect  for  English-speaking  people 
on  both  sides  of  the  water  to  believe  that  in  such 
case  they  will  behave  sensibly,  and  not  like  silly 
duellists.  So,  too,  as  regards  "  feeling  insulted  " 
by  the  speech  of  a  prime  minister,  there  is  a  re- 
cent historic  instance  to  the  point.  Our  British 
cousins  may  have  had  reason  to  feel  insulted  by 
some  expressions  in  President  Cleveland's  message 
of  December,  1895,  but  they  took  the  matter  very 
quietly.  Had  the  boot  been  on  the  other  leg,  a 
few  pupils  of  Elijah  Pogram  might  have  indulged 
in  Barmecide  suppers  of  gore,  but  there  the  affair 


180  A  Century  of  Science 

would  probably  have  ended.  The  reason  is  that 
deliberate  public  opinion  in  both  countries  feels 
sure  that  nothing  is  to  be  gained,  and  much  is  to 
be  lost,  by  fighting.  Under  such  conditions,  the 
growing  moral  sentiment  which  condemns  most 
warfare  as  wicked  has  a  chance  to  assert  itself. 
Thus  the  delay  which  allows  deliberate  public 
opinion  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  irritating 
incidents  is  a  great  advantage ;  and  the  mere 
existence  of  a  permanent  arbitration  treaty  tends 
toward  insuring  such  delay. 

People  who  prefer  civilized  and  gentleman-like 
methods  of  settling  disputes  to  the  savage  and 
ruffian-like  business  of  burning  and  slaughtering 
are  sometimes  stigmatized  by  silly  writers  as  "  sen- 
timentalists." In  the  deliberate  public  opinion 
which  has  come  to  be  so  strong  a  force  in  prevent- 
ing war  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  sentiment  has  as  yet  probably  no  great 
place ;  but  it  is  hoped  and  believed  that  it  will  by 
and  by  have  much  more.  In  the  days  of  Alexan- 
der Hamilton,  there  was  very  little  love  for  the 
Federal  Union  in  any  part  of  this  country  ;  it  was 
accepted  as  a  disagreeable  necessity.  But  his  policy 
brought  into  existence  a  powerful  gTOup  of  selfish 
interests  binding  men  more  and  more  closely  to 
the  Union,  and  more  so  at  the  North  than  at  the 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  181 

South.  When  Webster  made  his  reply  to  Hayne, 
there  was  a  growing  sentiment  of  Union  for  him  to 
appeal  to,  and  stronger  at  the  North  than  at  the 
South.  When  the  Civil  War  came,  that  senti- 
ment was  strong  enough  to  sadden  the  heart  of 
many  a  Southerner  whose  sense  of  duty  made  him 
a  secessionist ;  at  the  North  it  had  waxed  so  pow- 
erful that  men  were  ready  to  die  for  it,  as  the 
Mussulman  for  his  Prophet  or  the  Cavalier  for 
his  King.  Thus  sentiment  can  quickly  and  stur- 
dily grow  when  favoured  by  habits  of  thought  origi- 
nally dictated  by  self-interest.  Obviously  a  state 
of  things  in  favour  of  which  a  strong  sentiment  is 
once  enlisted  has  its  chances  of  permanence  greatly 
increased.  I  therefore  hope  and  believe  that  in 
the  deliberate  public  opinion  above  mentioned  sen- 
timent will  by  and  by  have  a  larger  place  than  it 
has  at  present.  As  feelings  of  dislike  between  the 
peoples  of  two  countries  are  always  unintelligent 
and  churlish,  so  feelings  of  friendship  are  sure  to 
be  broadening  and  refining.  The  abiding  senti- 
ment of  Scotchmen  toward  England  was  for  many 
centuries  immeasurably  more  rancorous  than  any 
Yankee  schoolboy  ever  gave  vent  to  on  the  Fourth 
of  July.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  advent  of 
the  twenty-first  century  should  not  find  the  friend- 
ship between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 


182  A  Century  of  Science 

quite  as  strong  as  that  between  Scotland  and  Eng- 
land to-day.  Toward  so  desirable  a  consummation 
a  permanent  policy  of  arbitration  must  surely 
tend. 

The  fact  that  deliberate  public  opinion  in  both 
countries  can  be  counted  upon  as  strongly  adverse 
to  war  is  the  principal  fact  which  makes  such  a 
permanent  policy  feasible.  It  is  our  only  sufficient 
guarantee  that  the  awards  of  the  international 
tribunal  will  be  respected.  These  considerations 
need  to  be  borne  in  mind,  if  we  try  to  speculate 
upon  the  probable  influence  upon  other  nations 
of  a  successful  system  of  arbitration  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain.  Upon  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe  a  considerable  interest  seems 
already  to  have  been  felt  in  the  treaty,  and,  as  I 
observed  above,  its  working  is  sure  to  be  carefully 
watched  ;  for  the  states  of  Europe  are  suffering 
acutely  from  the  apparent  necessity  of  keeping  per- 
petually prepared  for  war,  and  any  expedient  that 
holds  out  the  slightest  chance  of  relief  from  such 
a  burden  cannot  fail  to  attract  earnest  attention. 

The  peoples  of  Europe  are  not  unfamiliar  with 
the  principles  of  arbitration.  Indeed,  like  many 
other  good  things  which  have  loomed  up  conspicu- 
ously in  recent  times,  arbitration  can  be  traced 
back  to  the  ancient  Greeks,  for  whom  it  occasion- 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  183 

ally  mitigated  the  evils  attendant  upon  frequent 
warfare  between  their  city  -  states.  Among  the 
Italian  republics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  disputes 
were  sometimes  submitted  to  the  arbitration  of 
learned  professors  in  the  universities  at  Bologna 
and  other  towns.  But  such  methods  could  not 
prevail  over  the  ruder  fashions  of  Europe  north 
of  the  Alps.  As  mediaeval  Italy  was  the  industrial 
and  commercial  centre  of  the  world,  so  in  our  day 
it  is  the  nations  most  completely  devoted  to  indus- 
try and  commerce,  the  English-speaking  nations, 
that  are  foremost  in  bringing  into  practice  the 
methods  of  arbitration.  The  settlement  of  the 
Alabama  Claims  is  the  most  brilliant  instance 
on  record,  and  we  have  already  cited  examples  of 
the  readiness  of  sundry  nations,  great  and  small, 
to  imitate  it.  Such  examples,  even  when  concerned 
with  questions  of  minor  importance,  are  to  some 
extent  an  indication  of  the  growing  conviction  that 
war,  and  the  unceasing  preparations  for  it,  are  be- 
coming insupportable  burdens. 

It  is  the  steadily  increasing  complication  of  in- 
dustrial life,  and  the  heightened  standard  of  living 
that  has  come  therewith,  that  are  making  men,  year 
by  year,  more  unwilling  to  endure  the  burdens 
entailed  by  war.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  human  life 
was  made  hideous  by  famine,  pestilence,  perennial 


184  A  Century  of  Science 

warfare,  and  such  bloody  superstitions  as  the  belief 
in  witchcraft ;  but  men  contrived  to  endure  it, 
because  they  had  no  experience  of  anything  better, 
and  could  not  even  form  a  conception  of  relief 
save  such  as  the  Church  afforded.  Deluges  of 
war,  fraught  with  horrors  which  stagger  our  pow- 
ers of  conception,  swept  at  brief  intervals  over 
every  part  of  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  the 
intervals  were  mostly  filled  with  petty  waspish 
raids  that  brought  robbery  and  murder  home  to 
everybody's  door  ;  while  honest  industry,  penned 
up  within  walled  towns,  was  glad  of  such  precari- 
ous immunity  as  stout  battlements  eked  out  by 
blackmail  could  be  made  to  afford.  Fighting  was 
incessant  and  ubiquitous.  The  change  wrought 
in  six  centuries  has  been  amazing,  and  it  has  been 
chiefly  due  to  industrial  development.  Private 
warfare  has  been  extinguished,  famine  and  pesti- 
lence seldom  occur  in  civilized  countries,  mental 
habits  nurtured  by  science  have  banished  the 
witches,  the  land  is  covered  with  cheerful  home- 
steads, and  the  achievement  of  success  in  life 
through  devotion  to  industrial  pursuits  has  become 
general.  Wars  have  greatly  diminished  in  fre- 
quency, in  length,  and  in  the  amount  of  misery 
needlessly  inflicted.  We  have  thus  learned  how 
pleasant  life  can  become  under  peaceful  conditions, 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  185 

and  we  are  determined  as  far  as  possible  to  pro- 
long such  conditions.  We  have  no  notion  of  sub- 
mitting to  misery  like  that  of  the  Middle  Ages ; 
on  the  contrary,  we  have  got  rid  of  so  much  of  it 
that  we  mean  to  go  on  and  get  rid  of  the  whole. 
Such  is  the  general  feeling  among  civilized  men. 
It  may  safely  be  said  not  only  that  no  nation  in 
Christendom  wishes  to  go  to  war,  but  also  that  the 
nations  are  few  which  would  not  make  a  consider- 
able sacrifice  of  interests  and  feelings  rather  than 
incur  its  calamities.  For  reasons  such  as  these,  the 
states  of  Continental  Europe  are  showing  an  in- 
creasing disposition  to  submit  questions  to  arbitra- 
tion, and  in  view  of  this  situation  the  fullest  mea- 
sure of  success  for  our  Arbitration  Treaty  is  to  be 
desired,  for  the  sake  of  its  moral  effect. 

The  method  at  present  in  vogue  on  the  continent 
of  Europe  for  averting  warfare  is  the  excessively 
cumbrous  expedient  of  keeping  up  great  armaments 
in  time  of  peace.  The  origin  of  this  expedient  may 
be  traced  back  to  the  levee  en  masse  to  which  re- 
volutionary France  resorted  in  the  agonies  of  self- 
defence  in  1792.  The  leme  en  masse  proved  to 
be  a  far  more  formidable  engine  of  warfare  than 
the  small  standing  armies  with  which  Europe  had 
long  been  familiar ;  and  so,  after  the  old  military 
system  of  Prussia  had  been  overthrown  in  1806, 


186  A  Century  of  Science 

the  reforms  of  Stein  and  Scharnhorst  introduced 
the  principle  of  the  levee  en  masse  into  times  of 
peace,  dividing  the  male  population  into  classes 
which  could  be  kept  in  training,  and  might  be  suc- 
cessively called  to  the  field  as  soon  as  military  exi- 
gencies should  demand  it.  The  prodigious  strength 
which  Prussia  could  put  forth  under  this  system  was 
revealed  in  1866  and  1870,  and  since  then  similar 
methods  have  become  universally  adopted,  so  that 
the  commencement  of  a  general  European  war  to- 
day would  doubtless  find  several  millions  of  men 
under  arms.  The  progress  of  invention  is  at  the 
same  time  daily  improving  projectiles  on  the  one 
hand,  and  fortifications  on  the  other  ;  we  may  per- 
haps hope  that  some  of  us  will  live  long  enough 
to  see  what  will  happen  when  a  ball  is  fired  with 
irresistible  momentum  against  an  impenetrable 
wall !  To  keep  up  with  the  progress  of  invention 
enormous  sums  are  expended  on  military  engines, 
while  each  nation  endeavours  to  avert  war  by  mak- 
ing such  a  show  of  strength  as  will  deter  other 
nations  from  attacking  it.  A  mania  for  increasing 
armaments  has  thus  been  produced,  and  although 
this  state  of  things  is  far  less  destructive  and  de- 
moralizing than  actual  war,  it  lays  a  burden  upon 
Europe  which  is  fast  becoming  intolerable.  For 
the  modern  development  of  industry  has  given  rise 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  187 

to  problems  that  press  for  solution,  and  no  satisfac- 
tory solution  can  be  reached  in  the  midst  of  this 
monstrous  armed  peace.  Competition  has  reached 
a  point  where  no  nation  can  afford  to  divert  a  con- 
siderable percentage  of  its  population  from  indus- 
trial pursuits.  Each  nation,  in  order  to  maintain 
its  rank  in  the  world,  is  called  upon  to  devote  its 
utmost  energies  to  agriculture,  manufactures,  and 
coriimerce.  Moreover,  the  economic  disturbances 
due  to  the  withdrawal  of  so  many  men  from  the 
work  of  production  are  closely  connected  with 
the  discontent  which  finds  vent  in  the  wild  schemes 
of  sociahsts,  communists,  and  anarchists.  There 
is  no  other  way  of  beginning  the  work  of  social  re- 
demption but  by  a  general  disarmament ;  and  this 
opinion  has  for  some  years  been  gaining  strength 
in  Europe.  It  is  commonly  felt  that  in  one  way 
or  another  the  state  of  armed  peace  will  have  to 
be  abandoned. 

In  a  lecture  at  the  Eoyal  Institution  of  Great 
Britain  in  1880,  I  argued  that  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  United  States,  with  a  population  quite 
freed  from  the  demands  of  militarism,  and  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe,  with  its  enormous  armaments 
useless  for  productive  purposes,  could  not  long 
be  maintained ;  that  American  competition  would 
soon  come  to  press  so  severely  upon  Europe  as  to 


188  A  Century  of  Science 

compel  a  disarmament,  and  in  this  way  the  swords 
would  get  beaten  into  ploughshares.  American 
competition  is  less  effective  than  it  might  be,  owing 
to  our  absurd  tariffs  and  vicious  currency,  but  its 
tendency  has  undoubtedly  been  in  the  direction 
indicated.  I  suspect,  however,  that  the  process 
will  be  less  simple.  Within  the  last  twenty  years 
the  operations  of  production  and  distribution  have 
been  assuming  colossal  proportions.  Syndicates, 
trusts,  and  other  huge  combinations  of  capital  have 
begun  carrying  on  business  upon  a  scale  heretofore 
unprecedented.  Already  we  see  symptoms  that  such 
combinations  are  to  include  partners  in  various 
parts  of  the  earth.  Business,  in  short,  is  becoming 
more  and  more  international ;  and  under  such  cir- 
cumstances the  era  of  general  disarmament  is  likely 
to  be  hastened.  In  the  long  run,  peace  has  no 
other  friend  so  powerful  as  commerce. 

While  every  successful  resort  to  arbitration  is 
to  be  welcomed  as  a  step  toward  facilitating  dis- 
armament, it  seems  probable  that  institutions  of 
somewhat  broader  scope  than  courts  of  arbitration 
will  be  required  for  the  settlement  of  many  com- 
plex international  questions.  In  the  European 
congresses  which  have  assembled  from  time  to 
time  to  deal  with  peculiar  exigencies,  we  have  the 
precedent  for  such  more  regular  and   permanent 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  189 

institutions.  An  example  of  what  is  meant  was 
furnished  by  the  Congress  of  Paris  in  1856,  when 
it  dealt  summarily  with  the  whole  group  of  vexed 
questions  relating  to  the  rights  and  duties  of  neu- 
trals and  belligerents  upon  the  ocean,  and  put  an 
end  to  the  chaos  of  two  centuries  by  establishing 
an  international  code  relating  to  piracy,  blockades, 
and  seizures  in  times  of  naval  war.  This  code  has 
been  respected  by  maritime  powers  and  enforced 
by  the  world's  public  opinion,  and  its  establish- 
ment was  a  memorable  incident  in  the  advance  of 
civilization.  Now,  such  work  as  the  Congress 
of  Paris  did  can  be  done  in  future  by  other  con- 
gresses, but  it  is  work  of  broader  scope  than  has 
hitherto  been  undertaken  by  courts  of  arbitration. 
I  am  inclined  to  think  that  both  these  institutions 
—  the  International  Congress  and  the  Tribunal  of 
Arbitration  —  are  destined  to  survive,  with  very- 
considerable  increase  in  power  and  dignity,  in  the 
political  society  of  the  future,  long  after  disarma- 
ment has  become  an  accomplished  fact. 

About  the  time  that  a  small  party  of  English- 
men at  Jamestown  were  laying  the  first  foundation 
stones  of  the  United  States,  one  of  the  greatest 
kings  and  one  of  the  greatest  ministers  of  modern 
times  were  deeply  engaged  in  what  they  called  the 
Great  Design,  a  scheme  for  a  European  Conf edera- 


190  A  Century  of  Science 

tion.  The  plan  of  Henry  IV.  of  France  and  the 
Duke  of  Sully  contemplated  a  federal  republic 
of  Christendom,  comprising  six  hereditary  crowns 
(France,  England,  Spain,  Sweden,  Denmark,  Lom- 
bardy),  five  elective  crowns  (the  Empire,  the  Pa- 
pacy, Bohemia,  Hungary,  Poland),  and  four  re- 
publics (Venice,  the  small  Italian  states,  Switzer- 
land, and  the  Netherlands).  There  was  to  be  a 
federal  government  in  three  branches,  legislative, 
executive,  judicial ;  a  federal  army  of  about  three 
hundred  thousand  men,  and  a  powerful  federal 
fleet.  The  purpose  of  the  federation  was  to  put 
an  end  once  and  forever  to  wars,  both  civil  and 
international.  Probably  the  two  great  statesmen 
were  not  sanguine  as  to  the  immediate  success  of 
their  Great  Design,  and  doubtless  none  knew  bet- 
ter than  they  that  it  would  cost  at  least  one  mighty 
war  to  establish  it.  But  there  is  a  largeness  of 
view  about  the  scheme  that  is  refreshing  to  meet  in 
a  world  of  arid  and  narrow  commonplaces.  With 
all  their  breadth  of  vision,  however,  Henry  and 
Sully  would  surely  have  been  amazed  had  they 
been  told  that  the  handful  of  half -starved  English- 
men at  Jamestown  were  inaugurating  a  political 
and  social  development  that  in  course  of  time 
would  contribute  powerfully  toward  the  success  of 
something  like  their  Great  Design. 


The  Arbitration  Treaty  191 

In  human  affairs  a  period  of  three  centuries  is 
a  brief  one,  and  the  progress  already  made  in  the 
direction  toward  which  the  two  great  Frenchmen 
were  looking  is  significant  and  prophetic.  The  vast 
armaments  now  maintained  on.  the  continent  of 
Europe  cannot  possibly  endure.  Economic  neces- 
sities will  put  an  end  to  them  before  many  years. 
But  disarmament,  apparently,  can  only  proceed 
pari  passu  with  the  establislunent  of  peaceful 
methods  of  settling  international  questions.  The 
machinery  for  this  will  probably  be  found  in  the 
further  development  of  two  institutions  that  have 
already  come  into  existence,  the  International  Con- 
gress and  the  Court  of  Arbitration.  The  existence 
of  these  institutions,  which  is  now  occasional,  will 
tend  to  become  permanent :  the  former  will  deal 
preferably  with  the  establishment  of  general  prin- 
ciples, the  latter  with  their  judicial  application  to 
special  cases.  As  European  congresses  meet  now 
upon  extraordinary  occasions,  so  once  it  was  with 
the  congresses  of  the  American  colonies,  such  as 
the  New  York  Congress  of  1690  and  the  Albany 
Congress  of  1754  for  concerting  measures  against 
New  France,  and  the  New  York  Congress  of  1765 
for  protesting  against  the  Stamp  Act.  Then  came 
the  Continental  Congress  of  1774,  which  circum- 
stances kept  in  existence  for  fifteen  years,  until  a 


192  A  Century  of  Science 

political  revolution  reached  its  consummation  in 
replacing  it  by  a  completely  organized  federal  gov- 
ernment. In  1754  the  possibility  of  a  permanent 
federation  of  American  states  was  derided  as  an 
idle  dream  of  Benjamin  Franklin  and  Thomas 
Hutchinson.  Very  little  love  was  lost  between 
the  people  of  different  colonies;  and  when  the 
crisis  came  on,  after  1783,  the  majority  hated  and 
dreaded  a  permanent  Federal  Union,  and  accepted 
it  only  as  the  alternative  to  something  worse, 
namely,  anarchy  and  civil  war.  In  like  manner, 
it  may  be  surmised  as  not  improbable  that  in 
course  of  time  the  occasions  for  summoning  Eu- 
ropean congresses  will  recur  with  increasing  fre- 
quency until  the  functions  which  they  are  called 
upon  to  discharge  will  convert  them  into  a  perma- 
nent institution.  Such  a  development,  combined 
with  the  increased  employment  of  arbitration,  must 
ultimately  tend  toward  the  creation  of  a  Federal 
Union  in  Europe.  The  fact  that  such  a  result 
will  be  hated  and  dreaded  by  many  people,  per- 
haps by  the  great  majority,  need  not  prevent  its 
being  accepted  and  acquiesced  in  as  the  alternative 
to  something  worse,  namely,  the  indefinite  contin- 
uance of  the  system  of  vast  armaments. 

By  the  time  when  such  a  result  comes  clearly 
within  sight,  it  will  very  likely  have  been  made 


T%e  Arbitration  Treaty  193 

evident  that  the  policy  of  isolation  which  our  coun- 
try has  wisely  pursued  for  the  century  past  can- 
not be  maintained  perpetually.  When  Washing- 
ton wrote  his  Farewell  Address,  the  danger  of  our 
getting  dragged  into  the  mighty  struggle  then 
raging  in  Europe  was  a  real  and  serious  danger, 
against  which  we  needed  to  be  solemnly  warned. 
Since  then  times  have  changed,  and  they  are 
changing  still.  From  a  nation  scarcely  stronger 
than  Portugal  we  have  become  equal  to  the  strong- 
est. Railways,  telegraphs,  and  international  in- 
dustries are  making  every  part  of  the  world  the 
neighbour  of  every  other  part.  To  preserve  a  pol- 
icy of  isolation  will  not  always  be  possible,  nor 
will  it  be  desirable.  Situations  will  arise  (if  they 
have  not  already  arisen)  in  which  such  moral 
weight  as  the  United  States  can  exert  will  be 
called  for.  The  pacification  of  Europe,  therefore, 
is  not  an  affair  that  is  foreign  to  our  interests. 
In  that,  as  in  every  other  aspect  of  the  Christian 
policy  of  "  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  men," 
we  are  most  deeply  concerned ;  and  every  incident, 
like  the  present  Arbitration  Treaty,  that  promises 
to  advance  us  even  by  one  step  toward  the  sub- 
lime result,  it  is  our  solemn  duty  to  welcome  and 
encourage  by  all  the  means  within  our  power, 
February,  1897, 


VIII 

FRANCIS  PARKMAN* 

In  the  summer  of  1865  I  had  occasion  ahnost 
daily  to  pass  by  the  pleasant  windows  of  Little, 
Brown  &  Co.,  in  Boston,  and  it  was  not  an  easy 
thing  to  do  without  stopping  for  a  moment  to  look 
in  upon  their  ample  treasures.  Among  the  fresh- 
est novelties  there  displayed  were  to  be  seen  Lord 
Derby's  translation  of  the  Iliad,  Forsyth's  Life 
of  Cicero,  Colonel  Higginson's  Epictetus,  a  new 
edition  of  Edmund  Burke's  writings,  and  the  taste- 
ful reprint  of  Fronde's  History  of  England,  just 
in  from  the  Riverside  Press.  One  day,  in  the 
midst  of  such  time-honoured  classics  and  new  books 
on  well-worn  themes,  there  appeared  a  stranger 
that  claimed  attention  and  aroused  curiosity.  It 
was  a  modest  crown  octavo,  clad  in  sombre  garb, 
and  bearing  the  title  "  Pioneers  of  France  in  the 

1  This  paper  originated  in  an  address  at  Sanders  Theatre,  Cam- 
bridge, December  6,  1893,  at  a  service  commemorative  of  Mr. 
Parkman.  In  its  present  greatly  expanded  shape  it  was  printed 
as  the  Introduction  to  the  reviqpd  edition  of  Parkman's  Works, 
Boston,  1897-98,  20  vols.,  octavo. 


Francis  Parhman  195 

New  World."  Tlie  author's  name  was  not  famil- 
iar to  me,  but  presently  I  remembered  having  seen 
it  upon  a  stouter  volume  labelled  "  The  Conspiracy 
of  Pontiac,"  of  which  many  copies  used  to  stand 
in  a  row  far  back  in  the  inner  and  dusky  regions 
of  the  shop.  This  older  book  I  had  once  taken 
down  from  its  sheK,  just  to  quiet  a  lazy  doubt  as 
to  whether  Pontiac  might  be  the  name  of  a  man 
or  a  place.  Had  that  conspiracy  been  an  event  in 
Merovingian  Gaul  or  in  Borgia's  Italy,  I  should 
have  felt  a  twinge  of  conscience  at  not  knowing 
about  it ;  but  the  deeds  of  feathered  and  painted 
red  men  on  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Alleghanies, 
only  a  century  old,  seemed  remote  and  trivial.  In- 
deed, with  the  old-fashioned  study  of  the  humani- 
ties, which  tended  to  keep  the  Mediterranean  too 
exclusively  in  the  centre  of  one's  field  of  vision,  it 
was  not  always  easy  to  get  one's  historical  perspec- 
tive correctly  adjusted.  Scenes  and  events  that 
come  within  the  direct  line  of  our  spiritual  an- 
cestry, which  until  yesterday  was  aU  in  the  Old 
World,  thus  become  unduly  magnified,  so  as  to 
deaden  our  sense  of  the  interest  and  importance  of 
the  things  that  have  happened  since  our  forefathers 
went  forth  from  their  homesteads  to  grapple  with 
the  terrors  of  an  outlying  wilderness.  We  find  no 
difiiculty  in  realizing  the  historic  significance  of 


196  A  Century  of  Science 

Marathon  and  Chalons,  of  the  barons  at  Eunny- 
mede  or  Luther  at  Wittenberg ;  and  scarcely  a 
hill  or  a  meadow  in  the  Roman's  Europe  but 
blooms  for  us  with  flowers  of  romance.  Litera- 
ture and  philosophy,  art  and  song,  have  expended 
their  richest  treasures  in  adding  to  the  witchery 
of  Old  World  spots  and  Old  World  themes. 

But  as  we  learn  to  broaden  our  horizon,  the 
perspective  becomes  somewhat  shifted.  It  begins 
to  dawn  upon  us  that  in  New  World  events,  also, 
there  is  a  rare  and  potent  fascination.  Not  only 
is  there  the  interest  of  their  present  importance, 
which  nobody  would  be  likely  to  deny,  but  there 
is  the  charm  of  a  historic  past  as  full  of  romance 
as  any  chapter  whatever  in  the  annals  of  mankind. 
The  Alleghanies  as  well  as  the  Apennines  have 
looked  down  upon  great  causes  lost  and  won,  and 
the  Mohawk  Valley  is  classic  ground  no  less  than 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine.  To  appreciate  these 
things  thirty  years  ago  required  the  vision  of  a 
riiaster  in  the  field  of  history ;  and  when  I  carried 
home  and  read  the  "  Pioneers  of  France,"  I  saw 
at  once  that  in  Francis  Parkman  we  had  found 
such  a  master.  The  reading  of  the  book  was  for 
me,  as  doubtless  for  many  others,  a  pioneer  expe- 
rience in  this  New  World.  It  was  a  delightful 
experience,  repeated  and  prolonged  for  many  a 


Francis  Parhman  197 

year,  as  those  glorious  volumes  came  one  after  an- 
other from  the  press,  until  the  story  of  the  struggle 
between  France  and  England  for  the  possession  of 
North  America  was  at  last  completed.  It  was  an 
experience  of  which  the  fuU  significance  required 
study  in  many  and  apparently  diverse  fields  to 
realize.  By  step  after  step  one  would  alight  upon 
new  ways  of  regarding  America  and  its  place  in 
universal  history. 

First  and  most  obvious,  plainly  visible  from  the 
threshold  of  the  subject,  was  its  extreme  pictur- 
esqueness.  If  is  a  widespread  notion  that  Amer- 
ican history  is  commonplace  and  dull ;  and  as  for 
the  American  red  man,  he  is  often  thought  to 
be  finally  disposed  of  when  we  have  stigmatized 
him  as  a  bloodthirsty  demon  and  grovelling  beast. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  those  who  entertain  such 
notions  have  never  read  Mr.  Parkman.  In  the 
theme  which  occupied  him  his  poet's  eye  saw  no- 
thing that  was  duU  or  commonplace.  To  bring 
him  vividly  before  us,  I  wiU  quote  his  own  words 
from  one  of  the  introductory  pages  of  his  opening 
volume :  — 

"  The  French  dominion  is  a  memory  of  the  past ; 
and  when  we  evoke  its  departed  shades,  they  rise 
upon  us  from  their  graves  in  strange  romantic 
guise.     Again  their  ghostly  camp  fires  seem  to 


198  A  Century  of  Science 

burn,  and  the  fitful  light  is  cast  around  on  lord  and 
vassal  and  black-robed  priest,  mingled  with  wild 
forms  of  savage  warriors,  knit  in  close  fellowship 
on  the  same  stern  errand.  A  boundless  vision 
grows  upon  us :  an  untamed  continent ;  vast  wastes 
of  forest  verdure;  mountains  silent  in  primeval 
sleep ;  river,  lake,  and  glimmering  pool ;  wilder- 
ness oceans  mingling  with  the  sky.  Such  was  the 
domain  which  France  conquered  for  civilization. 
Plumed  helmets  gleamed  in  the  shade  of  its  for- 
ests, priestly  vestments  in  its  dens  and  fastnesses 
of  ancient  barbarism.  Men  steeped  in  antique 
learning,  pale  with  the  close  breath  of  the  cloister, 
here  spent  the  noon  and  evening  of  their  lives, 
ruled  savage  hordes  with  a  mild  parental  sway, 
and  stood  serene  before  the  direst  shapes  of  death. 
Men  of  courtly  nurture,  heirs  to  the  polish  of  a 
far-reaching  ancestry,  here  with  their  dauntless 
hardihood  put  to  shame  the  boldest  sons  of  toil." 
When  a  writer  in  sentences  that  are  mere  gen- 
eralizations gives  us  such  pictures  as  these,  one 
has  much  to  expect  from  his  detailed  narrative, 
glowing  with  sympathy  and  crowded  with  incident. 
In  Parkman's  books  such  expectations  are  never 
disappointed.  What  was  an  uncouth  and  howling 
wilderness  in  the  world  of  literature  he  has  taken 
for  his  own  domain,  and  peopled  it  forever  with 


Francis  ParJcman  199 

living  figures,  dainty  and  winsome,  or  grim  and 
terrible,  or  sprightly  and  gay.  Never  shall  be 
forgotten  the  beautiful  earnestness,  the  devout  se- 
renity, the  blithe  courage,  of  Champlain ;  never  can 
we  forget  the  saintly  Marie  de  I'lncarnation,  the 
delicate  and  long-suffering  Lalemant,  the  lionlike 
Brebeuf,  the  chivalrous  Maisonneuve,  the  grim 
and  wily  Pontiac,  or  that  man  against  whom  fate 
sickened  of  contending,  the  mighty  and  masterful 
La  Salle.  These,  with  many  a  comrade  and  foe, 
have  now  their  place  in  literature  as  permanent 
and  sure  as  Tancred  or  St.  Boniface,  as  the  Cid 
or  Robert  Bruce.  As  the  wand  of  Scott  revealed 
imsuspected  depths  of  human  interest  in  Border 
castle  and  Highland  glen,  so  it  seems  that  North 
America  was  but  awaiting  the  magician's  touch 
that  should  invest  its  rivers  and  hillsides  with 
memories  of  great  days  gone  by.  Parkman's  sweep 
has  been  a  wide  one,  and  many  are  the  spots  that 
his  wand  has  touched,  from  the  cliffs  of  the  Sague- 
nay  to  the  Texas  coast,  and  from  Acadia  to  the 
western  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

I  do  not  forget  that  earlier  writers  than  Park- 
man  had  felt  something  of  the  picturesqueness  and 
the  elements  of  dramatic  force  in  the  history  of 
the  conquest  of  our  continent.  In  particular,  the 
characteristics  of  the  red  men  and  the  incidents  of 


200  A  Century  of  Science 

forest  life  had  long  ago  been  made  tlie  theme  of 
novels  and  poems,  such  as  they  were;  I  wonder 
how  many  people  of  to-day  remember  even  the 
names  of  such  books  as  "  Yonnondio "  or  "  Ka- 
baosa  "  ?  All  such  work  was  tlirown  into  the  shade 
by  that  of  Fenimore  Cooper,  whose  genius,  though 
limited,  was  undeniable.  But  when  we  mention 
Cooper  we  are  brought  at  once  by  contrast  to  the 
secret  of  Parkman's  power.  It  has  long  been 
recognized  that  Cooper's  Indians  are  more  or  less 
unreal;  just  such  creatures  never  existed  any- 
where. When  Corneille  and  Racine  put  ancient 
Greeks  or  Romans  on  the  stage  they  dressed  them 
in  velvet  and  gold  lace,  flowing  wigs  and  high 
buckled  shoes,  and  made  them  talk  like  Louis 
XIV.'s  courtiers ;  in  seventeenth-century  drama- 
tists the  historical  sense  was  lacking.  In  the  next 
age  it  was  not  much  better.  When  Rousseau  had 
occasion  to  philosophize  about  men  in  a  state  of 
nature  he  invented  the  Noble  Savage,  an  insuffer- 
able creature  whom  any  real  savage  would  justly 
loathe  and  despise.  The  noble  savage  has  figured 
extensively  in  modern  literature,  and  has  left  his 
mark  upon  Cooper's  pleasant  pages  as  well  as 
upon  many  a  chapter  of  serious  history.  But  you 
cannot  introduce  unreal  Indians  as  factors  in  the 
development   of  a  narrative  without   throwing   a 


Francis  Parhman  201 

shimmer  of  unreality  about  the  whole  story.  It  is 
like  bringing  in  ghosts  or  goblins  among  live  men 
and  women  :  it  instantly  converts  sober  narrative 
into  fairy  tale  ;  the  two  worlds  will  no  more  mix 
than  oil  and  water.  TMe  ancient  and  mediaeval 
minds  did  not  find  it  so,  as  the  numberless  his- 
tories encumbered  with  the  supernatural  testify; 
but  the  modern  mind  does  find  it  so.  The  mod- 
ern mind  has  taken  a  little  draught,  the  prelude 
to  deeper  draughts,  at  the  healing  and  purifying 
well  of  science  ;  and  it  has  begun  to  be  dissatis- 
fied with  anything  short  of  exact  truth.  When 
any  unsound  element  enters  into  a  narrative,  the 
taint  is  quickly  tasted,  and  its  flavour  spoils  the 
whole. 

We  are  then  brought,  I  say,  to  the  secret  of 
Parkman's  power.  His  Indians  are  true  to  the 
life.  In  his  pages  Pontiac  is  a  man  of  warm  flesh 
and  blood,  as  much  so  as  Montcalm  or  Israel  Put- 
nam. This  solid  reality  in  the  Indians  makes 
the  whole  work  real  and  convincing.  Here  is  the 
great  contrast  between  Parkman's  work  and  that 
of  Prescott,  in  so  far  as  the  latter  dealt  with 
American  themes.  In  reading  Prescott's  account 
of  the  conquest  of  Mexico,  one  feels  one's  self 
in  the  world  of  the  "  Arabian  Nights ;  "  indeed, 
the  author  himseK,  in  occasional  comments,  lets  us 


202  A  Century  of  Science 

see  that  lie  is  unable  to  get  rid  of  just  such  a 
feeling. 

His  story  moves  on  in  a  region  that  is  unreal  to 
him,  and  therefore  tantalizing  to  the  reader ;  his 
Montezuma  is  a  personality  like  none  that  ever  ex- 
isted beneath  the  moon.  This  is  because  Prescott 
simply  followed  his  Spanish  authorities  not  only  in 
their  statements  of  physical  fact,  but  in  their  inevi- 
table misconceptions  of  the  strange  Aztec  society 
which  they  encountered;  the  Aztecs  in  his  story 
are  unreal,  and  this  false  note  vitiates  it  all.  In 
his  Peruvian  story  Prescott  followed  safer  leaders 
in  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  and  Cieza  de  Leon,  and 
made  a  much  truer  picture  ;  but  he  lacked  the 
ethnological  knowledge  needful  for  coming  into 
touch  with  that  ancient  society,  and  one  often  feels 
this  as  the  weak  spot  in  a  narrative  of  marvellous 
power  and  beauty. 

Now  it  was  Parkman's  good  fortune  at  an  early 
age  to  realize  that  in  order  to  do  his  work  it  was 
first  of  all  necessary  to  know  the  Indian  by  per- 
sonal fellowship  and  contact.  It  was  also  his  good 
fortune  that  the  right  sort  of  Indians  were  still 
accessible.  What  would  not  Prescott  have  given, 
what  would  not  any  student  of  human  evolution 
give,  for  a  chance  to  pass  a  week  or  even  a  day  in 
such  a  community  as  the  Tlascala  of  Xicotencatl 


Francis  Parhman  203 

or  tlie  Mexico  of  Montezuma  I  That  phase  of  so- 
cial development  has  long  since  disappeared.  But 
fifty  years  ago,  on  our  great  western  plains  and 
among  the  Rocky  Mountains,  there  stiU  prevailed 
a  state  of  society  essentially  similar  to  that  which 
greeted  the  eyes  of  Champlain  upon  the  St.  Law- 
rence and  of  John  Smith  upon  the  Chickahominy. 
In  those  days  the  Oregon  Trail  had  changed  but 
little  since  the  memorable  journey  of  Lewis  and 
Clark  in  the  beginning  of  the  present  century. 
In  1846,  two  years  after  taking  his  bachelor  de- 
gree at  Harvard,  young  Parkman  had  a  taste 
of  the  excitements  of  savage  life  in  that  primeval 
wilderness.  He  was  accompanied  by  his  kinsman, 
Mr.  Quincy  Shaw.  They  joined  a  roving  tribe  of 
Sioux  Indians,  at  a  time  when  to  do  such  a  thing 
was  to  take  their  lives  in  their  hands,  and  they 
spent  a  wild  summer  among  the  Black  HiUs  of 
Dakota  and  in  the  vast  moorland  solitudes  through 
which  the  Platte  River  winds  its  interminable 
length.  In  the  chase  and  in  the  wigwam,  in 
watching  the  sorcery  of  which  their  religion  chiefly 
consisted,  or  in  listening  to  primitive  folk  tales  by 
the  evening  camp  fire,  Parkman  learned  to  under- 
stand the  red  man,  to  interpret  his  motives  and  his 
moods.  With  his  naturalist's  keen  and  accurate 
eye  and  his  quick  poetic  apprehension,  that  youth- 


204  A  Century  of  Science 

ful  experience  formed  a  safe  foundation  for  all  his 
future  work.  From  that  time  forth  he  was  fitted 
to  absorb  the  records  and  memorials  of  the  early 
explorers,  and  to  make  their  strange  experiences 
his  own. 

The  next  step  was  to  gather  these  early  records 
from  government  archives,  and  from  libraries  pub- 
lic and  private,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  —  a 
task,  as  Parkman  himself  called  it,  "  abundantly 
irksome  and  laborious."  It  extended  over  many 
years  and  involved  several  visits  to  Europe.  It 
was  performed  with  a  thoroughness  approaching 
finality.  Already  in  the  preface  to  the  "  Pioneers  " 
the  author  was  able  to  say  that  he  had  gained  ac- 
cess to  all  the  published  materials  in  existence. 
Of  his  research  among  manuscript  sources  a  nota- 
ble monument  exists  in  a  cabinet  now  standing 
in  the  library  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society,  containing  nearly  two  hundred  folio  vol- 
umes of  documents  copied  from  the  originals  by 
expert  copyists.  Ability  to  incur  heavy  expense 
is,  of  course,  a  prerequisite  for  all  undertakings  of 
this  sort,  and  herein  our  historian  was  favoured 
by  fortime.  Against  this  chiefest  among  advan- 
tages were  to  be  offset  the  hardships  entailed 
by  delicate  health  and  inability  to  use  the  eyes 
for   reading  and  writing.     Parkman   always   die- 


Francis  Parhman  206 

tated  instead  of  holding  the  pen,  and  his  huge 
mass  of  documents  had  to  be  read  aloud  to  him. 
The  heroism  shown  year  after  year  in  contending 
with  physical  ailments  was  the  index  of  a  character 
fit  to  be  mated,  for  its  pertinacious  courage,  with 
the  heroes  that  live  in  those  shining  pages. 

The  progress  in  working  up  materials  was  slow 
and  sure.  "  The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,"  which 
forms  the  sequel  and  conclusion  of  Parkman's 
work,  was  first  published  in  1851,  only  five  years 
after  the  summer  spent  with  the  Indians;  four- 
teen years  then  elapsed  before  the  "  Pioneers " 
made  its  appearance  in  Little,  Brown  &  Co.'s 
window  ;  and  then  there  were  yet  seven  -  and- 
twenty  years  more  before  the  final  volimies  came 
out  in  1892.  Altogether,  about  haK  a  century 
was  required  for  the  building  of  this  grand  liter- 
ary monument.  Nowhere  can  we  find  a  better 
illustration  of  the  French  critic's  definition  of  a 
great  life,  —  a  thought  conceived  in  youth,  and 
realized  in  later  years. 

This  elaborateness  of  preparation  had  its  share 
in  producing  the  intense  vividness  of  Parkman's 
descriptions.  Profusion  of  detail  makes  them  seem 
like  the  accounts  of  an  eye-witness.  The  realism 
is  so  strong  that  the  author  seems  to  have  come 
in  person  fresh  from  the  scenes  he  describes,  with 


206  A  Century  of  Science 

the  smoke  of  the  battle  hovering  about  him  and  its 
fierce  light  glowing  in  his  eyes.  Such  realism  is 
usually  the  prerogative  of  the  novelist  rather  than 
of  the  historian,  and  in  one  of  his  prefaces  Park- 
man  recognizes  that  the  reader  may  feel  this  and 
suspect  him.  "  If  at  times,"  he  says,  "  it  may 
seem  that  range  has  been  allowed  to  fancy,  it  is 
so  in  appearance  only,  since  the  minutest  details 
of  narrative  or  description  rest  on  authentic  docu- 
ments or  on  personal  observation." 

This  kind  of  personal  observation  Parkman  car- 
ried so  far  as  to  visit  all  the  important  localities, 
indeed  well-nigh  all  the  localities,  that  form  the 
scenery  of  his  story,  and  study  them  with  the  patience 
of  a  surveyor  and  the  discerning  eye  of  a  landscape 
painter.  His  strong  love  of  nature  added  keen 
zest  to  this  sort  of  work.  From  boyhood  he  was  a 
trapper  and  hunter ;  in  later  years  he  became  emi- 
nent as  a  horticulturist,  originating  new  varieties 
of  flowers.  To  sleep  under  the  open  sky  was  his 
delight.  His  books  fairly  reek  with  the  fragrance 
of  pine  woods.  I  open  one  of  them  at  random,  and 
my  eye  falls  upon  such  a  sentence  as  this :  "  There 
is  softness  in  the  mellow  air,  the  warm  sunshine, 
and  the  budding  leaves  of  spring ;  and  in  the  forest 
flower,  which,  more  delicate  than  the  pampered  off- 
spring of  gardens,  lifts  its  tender  head  through  the 


Francis  Parkman  207 

refuse  and  decay  of  the  wilderness."  Looking  at 
the  context,  I  find  that  this  sentence  comes  in  a 
remarkable  passage  suggested  by  Colonel  Henry 
Bouquet's  western  expedition  of  1764,  when  he 
compelled  the  Indians  to  set  free  so  many  French 
and  English  prisoners.  Some  of  these  captives 
were  unwilling  to  leave  the  society  of  the  red  men ; 
some  positively  refused  to  accept  the  boon  of  what 
was  called  freedom.  In  this  strange  conduct,  ex- 
claims Parkman,  there  was  no  unaccountable  per- 
versity ;  and  he  breaks  out  with  two  pages  of  noble 
dithyrambics  in  praise  of  savage  life.  "  To  him 
who  has  once  tasted  the  reckless  independence,  the 
haughty  seK-reliance,  the  sense  of  irresponsible 
freedom,  which  the  forest  life  engenders,  civiliza- 
tion thenceforth  seems  flat  and  stale.  .  .  .  The 
entrapped  wanderer  grows  fierce  and  restless,  and 
pants  for  breathing  room.  His  path,  it  is  true, 
was  choked  with  difficulties,  but  his  body  and  soul 
were  hardened  to  meet  them ;  it  was  beset  with 
dangers,  but  these  were  the  very  spice  of  his  life, 
gladdening  his  heart  with  exulting  self-confidence, 
and  sending  the  blood  through  his  veins  with 
a  livelier  current.  The  wilderness,  rough,  harsh, 
and  inexorable,  has  charms  more  potent  in  their 
seductive  influence  than  all  the  lures  of  luxury 
and  sloth.     And  often  he  on  whom  it  has  cast  its 


208  A  Century  of  Science 

magic  finds  no  heart  to  dissolve  the  spell,  and  re- 
mains a  wanderer  and  an  Ishmaelite  to  the  hour 
of  his  death."  i 

No  one  can  doubt  that  the  man  who  could  write 
like  this  had  the  kind  of  temperament  that  could 
look  into  the  Indian's  mind  and  portray  him  cor- 
rectly. But  for  this  inborn  temperament  all  his 
microscopic  industry  would  have  availed  him  but 
little.  To  use  his  own  words :  "  Faithfulness  to 
the  truth  of  history  involves  far  more  than  a 
research,  however  patient  and  scrupulous,  into  spe- 
cial facts.  Such  facts  may  be  detailed  with  the 
most  minute  exactness,  and  yet  the  narrative,  taken 
as  a  whole,  may  be  unmeaning  or  untrue."  These 
are  golden  words  for  the  student  of  the  historical 
art  to  ponder.  To  make  a  truthful  record  of  a 
vanished  age  patient  scholarship  is  needed,  and 
something  more.  Into  the  making  of  a  historian 
there  should  enter  something  of  the  philosopher, 
something  of  the  naturalist,  something  of  the  poet. 
In  Parkman  this  rare  union  of  qualities  was  real- 
ized in  a  greater  degree  than  in  any  other  Ameri- 
can historian.  Indeed,  I  doubt  if  the  nineteenth 
century  can  show  in  any  part  of  the  world  another 
historian  quite  his  equal  in  respect  of  such  a  union. 

There  is  one   thing  which   lends  to  Parkman's 

1  Pontiac,  iii.  112. 


Francis  Parkman  209 

work  a  peculiar  interest,  and  will  be  sure  to  make 
it  grow  in  fame  with  the  ages.  Not  only  has  he 
left  the  truthful  record  of  a  vanished  age  so  com- 
plete and  final  that  the  work  wiU  never  need  to  be 
done  again,  but  if  any  one  should  in  future  attempt 
to  do  it  again  he  cannot  approach  the  task  with 
quite  such  equipment  as  Parkman.  In  an  impor- 
tant sense,  the  age  of  Pontiac  is  far  more  remote 
from  us  than  the  age  of  Clovis  or  the  age  of  Aga- 
memnon. When  barbaric  society  is  overwhelmed 
by  advancing  waves  of  civilization,  its  vanishing  is 
final ;  the  thread  of  tradition  is  cut  off  forever 
with  the  shears  of  Fate.  Where  are  Montezuma's 
Aztecs?  Their  physical  offspring  stiU  dwell  on 
the  table-land  of  Mexico,  and  their  ancient  speech 
is  still  heard  in  the  streets,  but  that  old  society  is 
as  extinct  as  the  trilobites,  and  has  to  be  painfully 
studied  in  fossil  fragments  of  custom  and  tradition. 
So  with  the  red  men  of  the  North :  it  is  not  true 
that  they  are  dying  out  physically,  as  many  people 
suppose,  but  their  stage  of  society  is  fast  disappear- 
ing, and  soon  it  will  have  vanished  forever.  Soon 
their  race  will  be  swallowed  up  and  forgotten,  just 
as  we  overlook  and  ignore  to-day  the  existence 
of  five  thousand  Iroquois  farmers  in  the  state  of 
New  York. 

Now  the  study  of   comparative  ethnology  has 


210  A  Century  of  Science 

begun  to  teach  us  that  the  red  Indian  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  of  men.  He  represents  a 
stage  of  evolution  through  which  civilized  men 
have  once  passed,  —  a  stage  far  more  ancient  and 
primitive  than  that  which  is  depicted  in  the  Odys- 
sey or  in  the  Book  of  Genesis.  When  Champlain 
and  Frontenac  met  the  feathered  chieftains  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  they  talked  with  men  of  the  Stone 
Age  face  to  face.  Phases  of  life  that  had  van- 
ished from  Europe  long  before  Rome  was  built 
survived  in  America  long  enough  to  be  seen  and 
studied  by  modern  men.  Behind  Mr.  Parkman's 
picturesqueness,  therefore,  there  lies  a  significance 
far  more  profound  than  one  at  first  would  suspect. 
He  has  portrayed  for  us  a  wondrous  and  forever 
fascinating  stage  in  the  evolution  of  humanity. 
We  may  well  thank  Heaven  for  sending  us  such 
a  scholar,  such  an  artist,  such  a  genius,  before  it 
was  too  late.  As  we  look  at  the  changes  wrought 
in  the  last  fifty  years,  we  realize  that  already  the 
opportunities  by  which  he  profited  in  youth  are  in 
large  measure  lost.  He  came  not  a  moment  too 
soon  to  catch  the  fleeting  light  and  fix  it  upon  his 
immortal  canvas. 

Thus  Parkman  is  to  be  regarded  as  first  of  all 
the  historian  of  Primitive  Society.  No  other  great 
historian  has  dealt  intelligently  and  consecutively 


Francis  Parlcman  211 

with  such  phases  of  barbarism  as  he  describes  with 
such  loving  minuteness.  To  the  older  historians 
all  races  of  men  very  far  below  the  European 
grade  of  culture  seemed  alike ;  all  were  ignorantly 
grouped  together  as  "  savages."  Mr.  Lewis  Mor- 
gan first  showed  the  wide  difference  between  true 
savages,  such  as  the  Apaches  and  Bannocks  on  the 
one  hand,  and  barbarians  with  developed  village 
life,  like  the  Five  Nations  and  the  Cherokees.  The 
latter  tribes  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  exhibited  social  phenomena  such  as  were 
probably  witnessed  about  the  shores  of  the  Medi- 
terranean some  seven  or  eight  thousand  years  ear- 
lier. If  we  carry  our  thoughts  back  to  the  time 
that  saw  the  building  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and 
imagine  civilized  Egypt  looking  northward  and 
eastward  upon  tribes  of  white  men  with  social 
and  political  ideas  not  much  more  advanced  than 
those  of  Frontenac's  red  men,  our  picture  will  be 
in  its  most  essential  features  a  correct  one.  What 
would  we  not  give  for  a  historian  who,  with  a 
pen  like  that  of  Herodotus,  could  bring  before  us 
the  scenes  of  that  primeval  Greek  world  before 
the  Cyclopean  works  at  Tiryns  were  built,  when  the 
ancestors  of  Solon  and  Aristides  did  not  yet  dwell 
in  neatly  joinered  houses  and  fasten  their  door- 
latches  with  a  thong,  when  the   sacred  city-state 


212  A  Century  of  Science 

was  still  unknown,  and  the  countryman  had  not 
yet  become  a  bucolic  or  "  tender  of  cows,"  and 
butter  and  cheese  were  still  in  the  future !  No 
written  records  can  ever  take  us  back  to  that  time 
in  that  place ;  for  there,  as  everywhere  in  the 
eastern  hemisphere,  the  art  of  writing  came  many 
years  later  than  the  domestication  of  animals,  and 
some  ages  later  than  the  first  building  of  towns. 
But  in  spite  of  the  lack  of  written  records,  the 
comparative  study  of  institutions,  especially  com- 
parative jurisprudence,  throws  back  upon  those  pre- 
historic times  a  light  that  is  often  dim,  but  some- 
times wonderfully  suggestive  and  instructive.  It 
is  a  light  that  reveals  among  primeval  Greeks  ideas 
and  customs  essentially  similar  to  those  of  the 
Iroquois.  It  is  a  light  that  grows  steadier  and 
brighter  as  it  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  five 
or  six  thousand  years  before  Christ  white  men 
around  the  ^gean  Sea  had  advanced  about  as  far 
as  the  red  men  in  the  Mohawk  Valley  two  centu- 
ries ago.  The  one  phase  of  this  primitive  society 
illuminates  the  other,  though  extreme  caution  is 
necessary  in  drawing  our  inferences.  Now  Park- 
man's  minute  and  vivid  description  of  primitive 
society  among  red  men  is  full  of  lessons  that  may 
be  applied  with  profit  to  the  study  of  preclassic 
antiquity  in  the  Old  World.     No  other  historian 


Francis  Parkman  213 

has  brought  us  into  such  close  and  familiar  con- 
tact with  human  life  in  such  ancient  stages  of  its 
progress.  In  Parkman's  great  book  we  have  a 
record  of  vanished  conditions  such  as  hardly  ex- 
ists anywhere  else  in  literature. 

I  say  his  great  book,  using  the  singular  num- 
ber ;  for,  with  the  exception  of  that  breezy  bit  of 
autobiography,  "  The  Oregon  Trail,"  aU  Park- 
man's  books  are  the  closely  related  volumes  of  a 
single  comprehensive  work.  From  the  adventures 
of  "  The  Pioneers  of  France  "  a  consecutive  story 
is  developed  through  "  The  Jesuits  in  North  Amer- 
ica" and  "The  Discovery  of  the  Great  West." 
In  "The  Old  Regime  in  Canada"  it  is  continued 
with  a  masterly  analysis  of  French  methods  of 
colonization  in  this  their  greatest  colony,  and  then 
from  "Frontenac  and  New  France  under  Louis 
XIV."  we  are  led  through  "A  Half-Century  of 
Conflict "  to  the  grand  climax  in  the  volumes  on 
"  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,"  after  which  "  The  Con- 
spiracy of  Pontiac  "  brings  the  long  narrative  to 
a  noble  and  brilliant  close.  In  the  first  volume 
we  see  the  men  of  the  Stone  Age  at  that  brief 
moment  when  they  were  disposed  to  adore  the 
bearded  newcomers  as  Children  of  the  Sun ;  in  the 
last  we  read  the  bloody  story  of  their  last  and  most 
desperate  concerted  effort  to  loosen  the  iron  grasp 


214  A  Century  of  Science 

with  which  these  palefaces  had  seized  and  were 
holding  the  continent.  It  is  a  well-rounded  tale, 
and  as  complete  as  anything  in  real  history,  where 
completeness  and  finality  are  things  unknown. 

Between  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  this  well- 
rounded  tale  a  mighty  drama  is  wrought  out  in  all 
its  scenes.  The  struggle  between  France  and  Eng- 
land for  the  soil  of  North  America  was  one  of  the 
great  critical  moments  in  the  career  of  mankind,  — 
no  less  important  than  the  struggle  between  Greece 
and  Persia,  or  between  Rome  and  Carthage.  Out 
of  the  long  and  complicated  interaction  between 
Roman  and  Teutonic  institutions  which  made  up 
the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages,  two  strongly  con- 
trasted forms  of  political  society  had  grown  up  and 
acquired  aggressive  strength  when  in  the  course 
of  the  sixteenth  century  a  New  World  beyond  the 
sea  was  laid  open  for  colonization.  The  maritime 
nations  of  Europe  were  naturally  the  ones  to  be 
attracted  to  this  new  arena  of  enterprise ;  and 
Spain,  Portugal,  France,  England,  and  Holland 
each  played  its  interesting  and  characteristic  part. 
Spain  at  first  claimed  the  whole,  excepting  only 
that  Brazilian  coast  which  Borgia's  decree  gave  to 
Portugal.  But  Spain's  methods,  as  well  as  her 
early  failure  of  strength,  prevented  her  from  mak- 
ing good  her  claim.     Spain's  methods  were  limited 


Francis  Parhman  215 

to  stepping  into  the  place  formerly  occupied  by  the 
conquering  races  of  half-civilized  Indians.  She 
made  aboriginal  tribes  work  for  her,  just  as  the 
Aztec  Confederacy  and  the  Inca  dynasty  had  done. 
Where  she  was  brought  into  direct  contact  with 
American  barbarism  without  the  intermediation  of 
half-civilized  native  races,  she  made  little  or  no 
headway.  Her  early  failure  of  strength,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  due  to  her  total  absorption  in  the 
fight  against  civil  and  religious  liberty  in  Europe. 
The  failure  became  apparent  as  soon  as  the  ab- 
sorption had  begun  to  be  complete.  Spain's  last 
aggressive  effort  in  the  New  World  was  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  little  Huguenot  colony  in  Florida  in 
1565,  and  it  is  at  that  point  that  Parkman's  great 
work  appropriately  begins.  From  that  moment 
Spain  simply  beat  her  strength  to  pieces  against 
the  rocks  of  Netherland  courage  and  resourceful- 
ness. As  for  the  Netherlands,  their  energies  were 
so  far  absorbed  in  taking  over  and  managing  the 
great  Eastern  empire  of  the  Portuguese  that  their 
work  in  the  New  World  was  confined  to  seizing 
upon  the  most  imperial  geographical  position,  and 
planting  a  cosmopolitan  colony  there  that,  in  the 
absence  of  adequate  support,  was  sure  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  competitors 
more  actively  engaged  upon  the  scene. 


216  A  Century  of  Science 

The  two  competitors  thus  more  actively  engaged 
were  France  and  England,  and  from  an  early 
period  it  was  felt  between  the  two  to  be  a  combat 
in  which  no  quarter  was  to  be  given  or  accepted. 
These  two  strongly  contrasted  forms  of  political 
society  had  each  its  distinct  ideal,  and  that  ideal 
was  to  be  made  to  prevail,  to  the  utter  exclusion 
and  destruction  of  the  other.  Probably  the  French 
perceived  this  somewhat  earlier  than  the  English ; 
they  felt  it  to  be  necessary  to  stamp  out  the  Eng- 
lish before  the  latter  had  more  than  realized  the 
necessity  of  defending  themselves  against  the 
French.  For  the  type  of  political  society  repre- 
sented by  Louis  XIV.  was  preeminently  militant, 
as  the  English  type  was  preeminently  industrial. 
The  aggressiveness  of  the  former  was  more  dis- 
tinctly conscious  of  its  own  narrower  aims,  and  was 
more  deliberately  set  at  work  to  attain  them,  while 
the  English,  on  the  other  hand,  rathei*  drifted  into  a 
tremendous  world  fight  without  distinct  conscious- 
ness of  their  purpose.  Yet  after  the  final  issue  had 
been  joined,  the  refrain  Carthago  delenda  est  was 
heard  from  the  English  side,  and  it  came  fraught 
with  impending  doom  from  the  lips  of  Pitt  as  in 
days  of  old  from  the  lips  of  Cato. 

The  French  idea,  had  it  prevailed  in  the  strife, 
would  not  have  been  capable  of  building  up  a  pa- 


Francis  Parhman  217 

cific  union  of  partially  independent  states,  covering 
this  vast  continent  from  ocean  to  ocean.  Within 
that  rigid  and  rigorous  bureaucratic  system  there 
was  no  room  for  spontaneous  individuality,  no  room 
for  local  self-government,  and  no  chance  for  a  flexi- 
ble federalism  to  grow  up.  A  well-known  phrase 
of  Louis  XIV.  was,  "  The  state  is  myseK."  That 
phrase  represented  his  ideal.  It  was  approxi- 
mately true  in  Old  France,  realized  as  far  as  sun- 
dry adverse  conditions  would  allow.  The  Grand 
Monarch  intended  that  in  New  France  it  should 
be  absolutely  true.  Upon  that  fresh  soil  was  to 
be  built  up  a  pure  monarchy  without  concession  to 
human  weaknesses  and  limitations.  It  was  a  pet 
scheme  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  never  did  a  philan- 
thropic world-mender  contemplate  his  grotesque 
phalanstery  or  pantarchy  with  greater  pleasure 
than  this  master  of  kingcraft  looked  forward  to 
the  construction  of  a  perfect  Christian  state  in 
America. 

The  pages  of  our  great  historian  are  full  of  ex- 
amples which  prove  that  if  the  French  idea  failed 
of  realization,  and  the  state  it  founded  was  over- 
whelmed, it  was  not  from  any  lack  of  lofty  quali- 
ties in  individual  Frenchmen.  In  all  the  history 
of  the  American  continent  no  names  stand  higher 
than  some  of   the  French   names.     For   courage, 


218  A  Century  of  Science 

for  fortitude  and  high  resolve,  for  sagacious  leader- 
ship, statesmanlike  wisdom,  unswerving  integrity, 
devoted  loyalty,  for  all  the  qualities  which  make 
life  heroic,  we  may  learn  lessons  innimierable  from 
the  noble  Frenchmen  who  throng  in  Parkman's 
pages.  The  difficulty  was  not  in  the  individuals, 
but  in  the  system ;  not  in  the  units,  but  in  the 
way  they  were  put  together.  For  while  it  is  true 
—  though  many  people  do  not  know  it  —  that  by 
no  imaginable  artifice  can  you  make  a  society  that 
is  better  than  the  human  units  you  put  into  it,  it 
is  also  true  that  nothing  is  easier  than  to  make  a 
society  that  is  worse  than  its  units.  So  it  was  with 
the  colony  of  New  France. 

Nowhere  can  we  find  a  description  of  despotic 
government  more  careful  and  thoughtful,  or  more 
graphic  and  lifelike,  than  Parkman  has  given  us 
in  his  volume  on  "  The  Old  Regime  in  Canada." 
Seldom,  too,  will  one  find  a  book  fuller  of  political 
wisdom.  The  author  never  preaches  like  Carlyle, 
nor  does  he  hurl  huge  generalizations  at  our  heads 
like  Buckle ;  he  simply  describes  a  state  of  society 
that  has  been.  But  I  hardly  need  say  that  his 
description  is  not  —  like  the  Dryasdust  descriptions 
we  are  sometimes  asked  to  accept  as  history  —  a 
mere  mass  of  pigments  flung  at  random  upon  a 
canvas.     It  is  a  picture  painted  with  consummate 


Francis  Parhman  219 

art;  and  in  this  instance  the  art  consists  in  so 
handling  the  relations  of  cause  and  effect  as  to 
make  them  speak  for  themselves.  These  pages 
are  alive  with  political  philosophy,  and  teem  with 
object  lessons  of  extraordinary  value.  It  would  be 
hard  to  point  to  any  book  where  History  more 
fully  discharges  her  high  function  of  gathering 
friendly  lessons  of  caution  from  the  errors  of  the 
past. 

Of  all  the  societies  that  have  been  composed  of 
European  men,  probably  none  was  ever  so  despot- 
ically organized  as  New  France,  unless  it  may  have 
been  the  later  Byzantine  Empire,  which  it  resem- 
bled in  the  minuteness  of  elaborate  supervision  over 
all  the  pettiest  details  of  life.  In  Canada  the  pro- 
tective, paternal,  socialistic,  or  nationalistic  theory 
of  government  —  it  is  the  same  old  cloven  hoof, 
under  whatever  specious  name  you  introduce  it  — 
was  more  fully  carried  into  operation  than  in  any 
other  community  known  to  history  except  ancient 
Peru.  No  room  was  left  for  individual  initiative 
or  enterprise.  AU  undertakings  were  nationalized. 
Government  looked  after  every  man's  interests  in 
this  world  and  the  next :  baptized  and  schooled 
him ;  married  him  and  paid  the  bride's  dowry  ;  gave 
him  a  bounty  with  every  child  that  was  born  to 
him ;  stocked  his  cupboard  with  garden  seeds  and 


220  A  Century  of  Science  ' 

compelled  him  to  plant  them ;  prescribed  the  size 
of  his  house  and  the  number  of  horses  and  cattle  he 
might  keep,  and  the  exact  percentages  of  profit 
he  might  be  allowed  to  make,  and  how  his  chim- 
neys should  be  swept,  and  how  many  servants  he 
might  employ,  and  what  theological  doctrine  he 
might  believe,  and  what  sort  of  bread  the  bakers 
might  bake,  and  where  goods  might  be  bought  and 
how  much  might  be  paid  for  them ;  and  if  in  a  so- 
ciety so  well  cared  for  it  were  possible  to  find  indi- 
gent persons,  such  paupers  were  duly  relieved,  from 
a  fund  established  by  government.  Unmitigated 
benevolence  was  the  theory  of  Louis  XIV.'s  Ca- 
nadian colony,  and  heartless  political  economy  had 
no  place  there.  Nor  was  there  any  room  for  free 
thinkers ;  when  the  King  after  1685  sent  out  word 
that  no  mercy  must  be  shown  to  heretics,  the  gov- 
ernor, Denonville,  with  a  pious  ejaculation,  replied 
that  not  so  much  as  a  single  heretic  could  be  found 
in  all  Canada. 

Such  was  the  community  whose  career  our  histo- 
rian has  delineated  with  perfect  soundness  of  judg- 
ment and  wealth  of  knowledge.  The  fate  of  this 
nationalistic  experiment,  set  on  foot  by  one  of  the 
most  absolute  of  monarchs  and  fostered  by  one  of 
the  most  devoted  and  powerful  of  religious  organi- 
zations, is  traced  to  the  operation  of  causes  in- 


Francis  Parkman  221 

herent  in  its  very  nature.  The  hopeless  paralysis, 
the  woeful  corruption,  the  moral  torpor,  resulting 
from  the  suppression  of  individualism,  are  vividly 
portrayed  ;  yet  there  is  no  discursive  generalizing, 
and  from  moment  to  moment  the  development  of 
the  story  proceeds  from  within  itself.  It  is  the 
whole  national  life  of  New  France  that  is  displayed 
before  us.  Historians  of  ordinary  calibre  exhibit 
their  subject  in  fragments,  or  they  show  us  some 
phases  of  life  and  neglect  others.  Some  have  no 
eyes  save  for  events  that  are  startling,  such  as  bat- 
tles and  sieges ;  or  decorative,  such  as  coronations 
and  court  balls.  Others  give  abundant  details  of 
manners  and  customs  ;  others  have  their  attention 
absorbed  by  economics  ;  others  again  feel  such  inter- 
est in  the  history  of  ideas  as  to  lose  sight  of  mere 
material  incidents.  Parkman,  on  the  other  hand, 
conceives  and  presents  his  subject  as  a  whole.  He 
forgets  nothing,  overlooks  nothing;  but  whether 
it  is  a  bloody  battle,  or  a  theological  pamphlet,  or 
an  exploring  journey  though  the  forest,  or  a  code 
for  the  discipHne  of  nunneries,  each  event  grows 
out  of  its  context  as  a  feature  in  the  total  develop- 
ment that  is  going  on  before  our  eyes.  It  is  only 
the  historian  who  is  also  philosopher  and  artist  that 
can  thus  deal  in  block  with  the  great  and  complex 
life  of  a  whole  society.     The  requisite  combination 


222  A  Century  of  Science 

is  realized  only  in  certain  rare  and  high  types  of 
mind,  and  there  has  been  no  more  brilliant  illustra- 
tion of  it  than  Parkman's  volumes  afford. 

The  struggle  between  the  machine-like  social- 
istic despotism  of  New  France  and  the  free  and 
spontaneous  political  vitality  of  New  England  is 
one  of  the  most  instructive  object  lessons  with 
which  the  experience  of  mankind  has  furnished  us. 
The  depth  of  its  significance  is  equalled  by  the 
vastness  of  its  consequences.  Never  did  Destiny 
preside  over  a  more  fateful  contest ;  for  it  deter- 
mined which  kind  of  political  seed  should  be  sown 
all  over  the  widest  and  richest  political  garden  plot 
left  untilled  in  the  world.  Free  industrial  Eng- 
land pitted  against  despotic  militant  France  for 
the  possession  of  an  ancient  continent  reserved  for 
this  decisive  struggle,  and  dragging  into  the  con- 
flict the  belated  barbarism  of  the  Stone  Age,  — 
such  is  the  wonderful  theme  which  Parkman  has 
treated.  When  the  vividly  contrasted  modern 
ideas  and  personages  are  set  off  against  the  roman- 
tic though  lurid  background  of  Indian  life,  the 
artistic  effect  becomes  simply  magnificent.  Never 
has  historian  grappled  with  another  such  epic 
theme,  save  when  Herodotus  told  the  story  of 
Greece  and  Persia,  or  when  Gibbon's  pages  re- 
sounded with  the  solemn  tread  of  marshalled  hosts 
through  a  thousand  years  of  change. 


Francis  Parkman  223 

The  story  of  Mr.  Parkman's  life  can  be  briefly- 
told.  He  was  born  in  Boston,  in  what  is  now 
known  as  Allston  Street,  September  16,  1823. 
His  ancestors  had  for  several  generations  been 
honourably  known  in  Massachusetts.  His  great- 
grandfather, Eev.  Ebenezer  Parkman,  a  graduate 
of  Harvard  in  1741,  was  minister  of  the  Congre- 
gational church  in  Westborough  for  nearly  sixty 
years ;  he  was  a  man  of  learning  and  eloquence, 
whose  attention  was  not  all  given  to  Calvinistic 
theology,  for  he  devoted  much  of  it  to  the  study 
of  history.  A  son  of  this  clergyman,  at  the  age 
of  seventeen,  served  as  private  in  a  Massachusetts 
regiment  in  that  greatest  of  modern  wars  which 
was  decided  on  the  Heights  of  Abraham.  How 
little  did  this  gallant  youth  dream  of  the  glory 
that  was  by  and  by  to  be  shed  on  the  scenes  and 
characters  passing  before  his  eyes  by  the  genius 
of  one  of  his  own  race  and  name !  Another  son 
of  Ebenezer  Parkman  returned  to  Boston  and  be- 
came a  successful  merchant,  engaged  in  that  for- 
eign traffic  which  played  so  important  and  liber- 
alizing a  part  in  American  life  in  the  days  before 
the  Enemy  of  mankind  had  invented  forty  per  cent 
tariffs.  The  home  of  this  merchant,  Samuel  Park- 
man,  on  the  corner  of  Green  and  Chardon  streets, 
was  long  famous  for  its  beautiful  flower  garden. 


224  A  Century  of  Science 

indicating  perhaps  the  kind  of  taste  and  skill  so 
conspicuous  afterwards  in  his  grandson.  In  Sam- 
uel the  clerical  profession  skipped  one  generation, 
to  be  taken  up  again  by  his  son,  Rev.  Francis 
Parkman,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  in  1807,  and  for 
many  years  after  1813  the  eminent  and  beloved 
pastor  of  the  New  North  Church.  Dr.  Parkman 
was  noted  for  his  public  spirit  and  benevolence. 
Bishop  Huntington,  who  knew  him  well,  says  of 
him :  "  Every  aspect  of  suffering  touched  him  ten- 
derly. There  was  no  hard  spot  in  his  breast. 
His  house  was  the  centre  of  countless  mercies  to 
various  forms  of  want ;  and  there  were  few  soli- 
citors of  alms,  local  or  itinerant,  and  whether  for 
private  necessity  or  public  benefactions,  that  his 
doors  did  not  welcome  and  send  away  satisfied. 
.  .  .  For  many  years  he  was  widely  known  and  es- 
teemed for  his  efficient  interest  in  some  of  our  most 
conspicuous  and  useful  institutions  of  philanthropy. 
Among  these  may  be  especially  mentioned  the 
Massachusetts  Bible  Society,  the  Society  for  Pro- 
pagating the  Gospel,  the  Orphan  Asylum,  the 
Humane  Society,  the  Medical  Dispensary,  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Relief  of  Aged  and  Destitute  Clergy- 
men, and  the  Congregational  Charitable  Society." 
He  also  took  an  active  interest  in  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, of  which  he  was  an  Overseer.     In  1829 


Francis  Parkman  225 

he  founded  there  the  professorship  of  "  Pulpit  Elo- 
quence and  the  Pastoral  Care,"  familiarly  known 
as  the  Parkman  Professorship.  A  pupil  and  friend 
of  Channing,  he  was  noted  among  Unitarians  for 
a  broadly  tolerant  disposition.  His  wealth  of  prac- 
tical wisdom  was  enlivened  by  touches  of  mirth, 
so  that  it  was  said  that  you  could  not  "meet 
Dr.  Parkman  in  the  street,  and  stop  a  minute  to 
exchange  words  with  him,  without  carrying  away 
with  you  some  phrase  or  turn  of  thought  so  exqui- 
site in  its  mingled  sagacity  and  humour  that  it 
touched  the  inmost  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  and 
made  the  heart  smile  as  well  as  the  lips."  Such 
was  the  father  of  our  historian. 

Mr.  Parkman's  mother  was  a  descendant  of 
Rev.  John  Cotton,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the 
leaders  in  the  great  Puritan  exodus  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Nathaniel 
Hall,  of  Medford,  member  of  a  family  which  was 
represented  in  the  convention  that  framed  the  Con- 
stitution of  Massachusetts  in  1780.  Caroline  Hall 
was  a  lady  of  remarkable  character,  and  many  of  her 
fine  qualities  were  noticeable  in  her  distinguished 
son.  Of  her  the  late  Octavius  Frothingham  says : 
"  Humility,  charity,  truthfulness,  were  her  prime 
characteristics.  Her  conscience  was  firm  and  lofty, 
though  never  austere.     She  had  a  strong  sense  of 


226  A  Century  of  Science 

right,  coupled  with  perfect  charity  toward  other  peo- 
ple ;  inflexible  in  principle,  she  was  gentle  in  prac- 
tice. Intellectually  she  could  hardly  be  called  bril- 
liant or  accomplished,  but  she  had  a  strong  vein  of 
common  sense  and  practical  wisdom,  great  pene- 
tration into  character,  and  a  good  deal  of  quiet 
humour." 

Of  her  six  children,  the  historian,  Francis  Park- 
man,  was  the  eldest.  As  a  boy  his  health  was 
delicate.  In  a  fragment  of  autobiography,  written 
in  the  third  person,  he  tells  us  that  "his  childhood 
was  neither  healthful  nor  buoyant,"  and  "  his  boy- 
hood, though  for  a  time  active,  was  not  robust." 
There  was  a  nervous  irritability  and  impulsiveness 
which  kept  driving  him  into  activity  more  intense 
than  his  physical  strength  was  well  able  to  bear. 
At  the  same  time  an  inborn  instinct  of  self-control, 
accompanied,  doubtless,  by  a  refined  unwillingness 
to  intrude  his  personal  feelings  upon  the  notice 
of  other  people,  led  him  into  such  habits  of  self- 
repression  that  his  friends  sometimes  felicitated  him 
on  "having  no  nerves."  There  was  something 
rudely  stoical  in  his  discipline.  As  he  says :  "  It 
was  impossible  that  conditions  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem abnormal  as  his  had  been  from  infancy  should 
be  without  their  effects  on  the  mind,  and  some  of 
these  were  of  a  nature  highly  to  exasperate  him. 


Francis  Parhnan  227 

Unconscious  of  their  character  and  origin,  and 
ignorant  that  with  time  and  confirmed  health  they 
would  have  disappeared,  he  had  no  other  thought 
than  that  of  crushing  them  by  force,  and  accord- 
ingly applied  himself  to  the  work.  Hence  resulted 
a  state  of  mental  tension,  habitual  for  several 
years,  and  abundantly  mischievous  in  its  effects. 
With  a  mind  overstrained  and  a  body  overtasked, 
he  was  burning  his  candle  at  both  ends." 

The  conditions  which  were  provided  for  the  sen- 
sitive and  highly  strung  boy  during  a  part  of  his 
childhood  were  surely  very  delightful,  and  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  they  served  to  determine 
his  career.  His  grandfather  Hall's  home  in  Med- 
ford  was  situated  on  the  border  of  the  Middlesex 
Fells,  a  rough  and  rocky  woodland,  four  thousand 
acres  in  extent,  as  wild  and  savage  in  many  places 
as  any  primeval  forest.  The  place  is  within  eight 
miles  of  Boston,  and  it  may  be  doubted  if  any- 
where else  can  be  found  another  such  magnificent 
piece  of  wilderness  so  near  to  a  great  city.  It 
needs  only  a  stray  Indian  or  two,  with  a  few  bears 
and  wolves,  to  bring  back  for  us  the  days  when 
Winthrop's  company  landed  on  the  shores  of  the 
neighbouring  bay.  In  the  heart  of  this  shaggy 
woodland  is  Spot  Pond,  a  lake  of  glorious  beauty, 
with  a  surface  of  three  hundred  acres,  and  a  homely 


228  A  Century  of  Science 

name  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  may  always  keep, 
—  a  name  bestowed  in  the  good  old  times  before 
the  national  vice  of  magniloquence  had  begun  to 
deface  our  maps.  Among  the  pleasure  drives  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Boston,  the  drive  around  Spot 
Pond  is  perhaps  foremost  in  beauty.  A  few  fine 
houses  have  been  built  upon  its  borders,  and  well- 
kept  roads  have  given  to  some  parts  of  the  forest 
the  aspect  of  a  park,  but  the  greater  part  of  the 
territory  is  undisturbed,  and  will  probably  remain 
so.  Seventy  years  ago  the  pruning  hand  of  civi- 
lization had  scarcely  touched  it.  To  his  grand- 
father's farm,  on  the  outskirts  of  this  enchanting 
spot,  the  boy  Parkman  was  sent  in  his  eighth  year. 
There,  he  tells  us,  "  I  walked  twice  a  day  to  a 
school  of  high  but  undeserved  reputation,  about 
a  mile  distant,  in  the  town  of  Medford.  Here  I 
learned  very  little,  and  spent  the  intervals  of 
schooling  more  profitably  in  collecting  eggs,  in- 
sects, and  reptiles,  trapping  squirrels  and  wood- 
chucks,  and  making  persistent  though  rarely  for- 
tunate attempts  to  kiU  birds  with  arrows.  After 
four  years  of  this  rustication  I  was  brought  back 
to  Boston,  when  I  was  unhappily  seized  with  a 
mania  for  experiments  in  chemistry,  involving  a 
lonely,  confined,  unwholesome  sort  of  life,  baneful 
to  body  and  mind."     No  doubt  the  experience  of 


Francis  Parhman  229 

four  years  of  plastic  boyhood  in  Middlesex  Fells 
gave  to  Parkman's  mind  the  bent  which  directed 
him  toward  the  history  of  the  wilderness.  This 
fact  he  recognized  of  himself  in  after  life,  while  he 
recalled  those  boyish  days  as  the  brightest  in  his 
memory. 

At  the  age  of  fifteen  or  so  the  retorts  and  cruci- 
bles were  thrown  away  forever,  and  a  reaction  in 
favor  of  woodland  life  began  ;  "a  fancy,"  he  says, 
"  which  soon  gained  full  control  over  the  course  of 
the  literary  pursuits  to  which  he  was  also  addicted." 
Here  we  come  upon  the  first  mention  of  the  com- 
bination of  interests  which  determined  his  career. 
A  million  boys  might  be  turned  loose  in  Middlesex 
Fells,  one  after  another,  there  to  roam  in  solitude  un- 
til our  globe  should  have  entered  upon  a  new  geolo- 
gical period,  and  the  chances  are  against  any  one  of 
them  becoming  a  great  historian,  or  anything  else 
above  mediocrity.  But  in  Parkman,  as  in  all  men 
of  genius,  the  dominant  motive  power  was  some- 
thing within  him,  something  which  science  has  not 
data  enough  to  explain.  The  divine  spark  of 
genius  is  something  which  we  know  only  through 
the  acts  which  it  excites.  In  Parkman  the  strong 
literary  instinct  showed  itself  at  Chauncy  Hall 
School,  where  we  find  him,  at  fourteen  years  of 
age,  eagerly  and  busily  engaged  in  the  study  and 


230  A  Century  of  Science 

practice  of  English  composition.  It  was  natural 
that  tales  of  heroes  should  be  especially  charming 
at  that  time  of  life,  and  among  Parkman's  efforts 
were  paraphrasing  parts  of  the  ^neid,  and  turn- 
ing into  rhymed  verse  the  scene  of  the  tourna- 
ment in  "  Ivanhoe."  From  the  artificial  stupidity 
which  is  too  often  superinduced  in  boys  by  their 
early  schooling  he  was  saved  by  native  genius  and 
breezy  woodland  life,  and  his  progress  was  rapid. 
In  1840,  having  nearly  completed  his  seventeenth 
year,  he  entered  Harvard  College.  His  reputation 
there  for  scholarship  was  good,  but  he  was  much 
more  absorbed  in  his  own  pursuits  than  in  the  regu- 
lar college  studies.  In  the  summer  vacation  of  1841 
he  made  a  rough  journey  of  exploration  in  the 
woods  of  northern  New  Hampshire,  accompanied 
by  one  classmate  and  a  native  guide,  and  there  he 
had  a  taste  of  adventure  slightly  spiced  with  hard- 
ship. 

How  much  importance  this  ramble  may  have 
had  one  cannot  say,  but  he  tells  us  that  "  before 
the  end  of  the  Sophomore  year  my  various  schemes 
had  crystallized  into  a  plan  of  writing  the  story  of 
what  was  then  known  as  the  '  Old  French  War,' 
—  that  is,  the  war  that  ended  in  the  conquest  of 
Canada;  for  here,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  the  forest 
drama  was  more  stirring,  and  the  forest  stage  more 


Francis  Parhman  231 

thronged  with  appropriate  actors,  than  in  any  other 
passage  of  our  history.  It  was  not  until  some 
years  later  that  I  enlarged  the  plan  to  include  the 
whole  course  of  the  American  conflict  between 
France  and  England,  or,  in  other  words,  the 
history  of  the  American  forest ;  for  this  was  the 
light  in  which  I  regarded  it.  My  theme  fascinated 
me,  and  I  was  haunted  with  wilderness  images  day 
and  night."  The  way  in  which  true  genius  works 
could  not  be  more  happily  described. 

When  the  great  scheme  first  took  shape  in  Mr. 
Parkman's  mind,  he  reckoned  that  it  would  take 
about  twenty  years  to  complete  the  task.  How 
he  entered  upon  it  may  best  be  told  in  his  own 
words :  — 

"  The  time  allowed  was  ample  ;  but  here  he  fell 
into  a  fatal  error,  entering  on  this  long  pilgrimage 
with  all  the  vehemence  of  one  starting  on  a  mile 
heat.  His  reliance,  however,  was  less  on  books 
than  on  such  personal  experience  as  should  in 
some  sense  identify  him  with  his  theme.  His  nat- 
ural inclinations  urged  him  in  the  same  direction, 
for  his  thoughts  were  always  in  the  forest,  whose 
features,  not  unmixed  with  softer  images,  possessed 
his  waking  and  sleeping  dreams,  filling  him  with 
vague  cravings  impossible  to  satisfy.  As  fond  of 
hardships  as  he  was  vain  of  enduring  them,  cherish- 


232  A  Century  of  Science 

ing  a  sovereign  scorn  for  every  physical  weakness 
or  defect,  deceived  moreover  by  a  rapid  develop- 
ment of  frame  and  sinews  which  flattered  him  with 
the  belief  that  discipline  sufficiently  unsparing 
would  harden  him  into  an  athlete,  he  slighted  the 
precautions  of  a  more  reasonable  woodcraft,  tired 
old  foresters  with  long  marches,  stopped  neither 
for  heat  nor  rain,  and  slept  on  the  earth  without  a 
blanket."  In  other  words,  "a  higlily  irritable 
organism  spurred  the  writer  to  excess  in  a  course 
which,  with  one  of  different  temperament,  would 
have  produced  a  free  and  hardy  development  of 
such  faculties  and  forces  as  he  possessed."  Along 
with  the  irritable  organism  perhaps  a  heritage  of 
fierce  ancestral  Puritanism  may  have  prompted  him 
to  the  stoical  discipline  which  sought  to  ignore  the 
just  claims  of  the  physical  body.  He  tells  us  of 
his  undoubting  faith  that  "  to  tame  the  Devil,  it  is 
best  to  take  him  by  the  horns ; "  but  more  mature 
experiences  made  him  feel  less  sure  "  of  the  advan- 
tages of  this  method  of  dealing  with  that  subtle 
personage." 

Under  these  conditions,  perhaps  the  college  vaca- 
tions which  he  spent  in  the  woods  of  Canada  and 
New  England  may  have  done  more  to  exhaust  than 
to  recruit  his  strength.  In  his  Junior  year,  some 
physical  injury,  the  nature  of  which  does  not  seem 


Francis  Parhman  233 

« 
to  be  known,  caused  it  to  be  thought  necessary  to 

send  him  to  Europe  for  his  health.  He  went  first 
to  Gibraltar  in  a  sailing  ship,  and  a  passage  from 
his  diary  may  serve  to  throw  light  upon  the  voyage 
and  the  man  :  "  It  was  a  noble  sight  when  at  inter- 
vals the  sun  broke  out  over  the  savage  waves,  chan- 
ging their  blackness  to  a  rich  blue  almost  as  dark ; 
while  the  foam  that  flew  over  it  seemed  like  whirl- 
ing snow  wreaths  on  the  mountain.  .  .  .  As  soon 
as  it  was  daybreak  I  went  on  deck.  Two  or  three 
sails  were  set.  The  vessel  was  scouring  along,  lean- 
ing over  so  that  her  lee  gunwale  scooped  up  the 
water ;  the  water  in  a  foam,  and  clouds  of  spray 
flying  over  us,  frequently  as  high  as  the  main  yard. 
The  spray  was  driven  with  such  force  that  it  pricked 
the  cheek  like  needles.  I  stayed  on  deck  two  or 
three  hours,  when,  being  thoroughly  salted,  I  went 
down,  changed  my  clothes,  and  read '  Don  Quixote  ' 
till  Mr.  Snow  appeared  at  the  door  with  '  You  are 
the  man  that  wants  to  see  a  gale,  are  ye  ?  Now  is 
your  chance  ;  only  just  come  up  on  deck.'  Accord- 
ingly I  went.  The  wind  was  yelling  and  howling 
in  the  rigging  in  a  fashion  that  reminded  me  of  a 
storm  in  a  Canadian  forest.  .  .  .  The  sailors  clung, 
half  drowned,  to  whatever  they  could  lay  hold  of, 
for  the  vessel  was  at  times  half  inverted,  and  tons 
of  water  washed  from  side  to  side  of  her  deck." 


234  A  Century  of  Science 

Mr.  Parkman's  route  was  from  Gibraltar  by  way 
of  Malta,  to  Sicily,  where  he  travelled  over  the 
whole  island,  and  thence  to  Naples,  where  he  fell 
in  with  the  great  preacher  Theodore  Parker.  To- 
gether they  climbed  Vesuvius  and  peered  into  its 
crater,  and  afterwards  in  and  about  Rome  they 
renewed  their  comradeship.  Here  Mr.  Parkman 
wished  to  spend  a  few  weeks  in  a  monastery,  in 
order  to  study  with  his  own  eyes  the  priests  and 
their  way  of  life.  More  than  once  he  met  with  a 
prompt  and  uncompromising  refusal,  but  at  leng-th 
the  coveted  privilege  was  granted  him ;  and,  curi- 
ously enough,  it  was  by  the  strictest  of  all  the  mo- 
nastic orders,  the  Passionists,  brethren  addicted  to 
wearing  hair  shirts  and  scourging  themselves  witli- 
out  mercy.  When  these  worthy  monks  learned 
that  their  visitor  was  not  merely  a  Protestant,  but  a 
Unitarian,  their  horror  was  intense  ;  but  they  were 
ready  for  the  occasion,  poor  souls  !  and  tried  their 
best  to  convert  him,  thereby  doubtless  enhancing 
their  value  in  the  historian's  eyes  as  living  and 
breathing  historic  material.  This  visit  was  surely 
of  inestimable  service  to  the  pen  which  was  to  be 
so  largely  occupied  with  the  Jesuits  and  Francis- 
cans of  the  New  World. 

Mr.  Parkman  did  not  leave  Rome  until  he  had 
seen  temples,  churches,  and   catacombs,  and    had 


Francis  Parhman  235 

been  presented  to  the  Pope.  He  stopped  at  Flor- 
ence, Bologna,  Modena,  Parma,  and  Milan,  and 
admired  the  Lake  of  Como,  to  which,  however, 
he  preferred  the  savage  wildness  of  Lake  George. 
He  saw  something  of  Switzerland,  went  to  Paris 
and  London,  and  did  a  bit  of  sight-seeing  in  Edin- 
burgh and  its  neighbourhood.  From  Liverpool  he 
sailed  for  America ;  and  in  spite  of  the  time  con- 
sumed in  this  trip  we  find  him  taking  his  de- 
gree at  Cambridge,  along  with  his  class,  in  1844. 
Probably  his  name  stood  high  in  the  rank  list,  for 
he  was  at  once  elected  a  member  of  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  Society.  After  this  he  entered  the  Law 
School,  but  stayed  not  long,  for  his  life's  work  was 
already  claiming  him.  In  his  brief  vacation  jour- 
neys he  had  seen  tiny  remnants  of  wilderness  here 
and  there  in  Canada  or  in  lonely  corners  of  New 
England ;  now  he  wished  to  see  the  wilderness  it- 
self in  all  its  gloom  and  vastness,  and  to  meet  face 
to  face  with  the  dusky  warriors  of  the  Stone  Age. 
At  this  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  as  already 
observed,  such  a  thing  can  no  longer  be  done.  No- 
where now,  within  the  United  States,  does  the  prim- 
itive wilderness  exist,  save  here  and  there  in  shreds 
and  patches.  In  the  middle  of  the  century  it  cov- 
ered the  western  half  of  the  continent,  and  could 
be  reached  by  a  journey  of  sixteen  or   seventeen 


236  A  Century  of  Science 

hundred  miles,  from  Boston  to  the  plains  of  Ne- 
braska. Parkman  had  become  an  adept  in  wood- 
craft and  a  dead  shot  with  the  rifle,  and  could  do 
such  things  with  horses,  tame  or  wild,  as  civilized 
people  never  see  done  except  in  a  circus.  There 
was  little  doubt  as  to  his  abihty  to  win  the  respect 
of  Indians  by  outshining  them  in  such  deeds  as 
they  could  appreciate.  Early  in  1846  he  started 
for  the  wilderness  with  Mr.  Quincy  Shaw.  A  pas- 
sage from  the  preface  to  the  fourth  edition  of 
"  The  Oregon  Trail,"  published  in  1872,  will  here 
be  of  interest :  — 

"  I  remember,  as  we  rode  by  the  foot  of  Pike's 
Peak,  when  for  a  fortnight  we  met  no  face  of  man, 
my  companion  remarked,  in  a  tone  anything  but 
complacent,  that  a  time  would  come  when  those 
plains  would  be  a  grazing  country,  the  buffalo  give 
place  to  tame  cattle,  houses  be  scattered  along  the 
watercourses,  and  wolves,  bears,  and  Indians  be 
numbered  among  the  things  that  were.  We  con- 
doled with  each  other  on  so  melancholy  a  prospect, 
but  with  little  thought  what  the  future  had  in  store. 
We  knew  that  there  was  more  or  less  gold  in  the 
seams  of  those  untrodden  mountains ;  but  we  did 
not  foresee  that  it  would  build  cities  in  the  West, 
and  plant  hotels  and  gambling  houses  among  the 
haunts  of  the  grizzly  bear.     We  knew  that  a  few 


Francis  Parhman  237 

fanatical  outcasts  were  groping  their  way  across 
the  plains  to  seek  an  asylum  from  Gentile  persecu- 
tion ;  but  we  did  not  imagine  that  the  polygamous 
hordes  of  Mormons  would  rear  a  swarming  Jeru- 
salem in  the  bosom  of  solitude  itself.  We  knew 
that  more  and  more,  year  after  year,  the  trains  of 
emigrant  wagons  would  creep  in  slow  procession 
towards  barbarous  Oregon  or  wild  and  distant 
California;  but  we  did  not  dream  how  Commerce 
and  Gold  would  breed  nations  along  the  Pacific, 
the  disenchanting  screech  of  the  locomotive  break 
the  spell  of  weird,  mysterious  mountains,  woman's 
rights  invade  the  fastnesses  of  the  Arapahoes,  and 
despairing  savagery,  assailed  in  front  and  rear, 
veil  its  scalp  locks  and  feathers  before  triumphant 
commonplace.  We  were  no  prophets  to  foresee 
all  this;  and  .had  we  foreseen  it,  perhaps  some  per- 
verse regret  might  have  tempered  the  ardour  of 
our  rejoicing. 

"The  wild  tribe  that  defiled  with  me  down  the 
gorges  of  the  Black  Hills,  with  its  paint  and  war 
plumes,  fluttering  trophies  and  savage  embroidery, 
bows,  arrows,  lances,  and  shields,  will  never  be  seen 
again.  Those  who  formed  it  have  found  bloody 
graves,  or  a  ghastlier  burial  in  the  maws  of  wolves. 
The  Indian  of  to-day,  armed  with  a  revolver  and 
crowned  with  an  old  hat,  cased  possibly  in  trou- 


238  A  Century  of  Science 

sers  or  muffled  in  a  tawdry  shirt,  is  an  Indian 
still,  but  an  Indian  shorn  of  the  picturesqueness 
which  was  his  most  conspicuous  merit.  The  moun- 
tain trapper  is  no  more,  and  the  grim  romance  of 
his  wild,  hard  life  is  a  memory  of  the  past." 

This  first  of  Parkman's  books,  "The  Oregon 
Trail,"  was  published  in  1847,  as  a  series  of  arti- 
cles in  the  "  Knickerbocker  Magazine."  Its  pages 
reveal  such  supreme  courage,  such  physical  hardi- 
ness, such  rapturous  enjoyment  of  life,  that  one 
finds  it  hard  to  realize  that  even  in  setting  out 
upon  this  bold  expedition  the  writer  was  something 
of  an  invalid.  A  weakness  of  sight  —  whether 
caused  by  some  direct  injury,  or  a  result  of  wide- 
spread nervous  disturbance,  is  not  quite  clear  — 
had  already  become  serious  and  somewhat  alarm- 
ing. On  arriving  at  the  Indian  camp,  near  the 
Medicine  Bow  range  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  he 
was  suffering  from  a  complication  of  disorders. 
"  I  was  so  reduced  by  illness,"  he  sa3^s,  "  that  I 
coidd  seldom  walk  without  reeling  like  a  drunken 
man;  and  when  I  rose  from  my  seat  upon  the 
ground  the  landscape  suddenly  grew  dim  before 
my  eyes,  the  trees  and  lodges  seemed  to  sway  to 
and  fro,  and  the  prairie  to  rise  and  fall  like  the 
swells  of  the  ocean.  Such  a  state  of  things  is  not 
enviable  anywhere.     In  a  country  where  a  man's 


Francis  Parhnan  239 

life  may  at  any  moment  depend  on  the  strength 
of  his  arm,  or  it  may  be  on  the  activity  of  his  legs, 
it  is  more  particularly  inconvenient.  Nor  is  sleep- 
ing on  damp  ground,  with  an  occasional  drenching 
from  a  shower,  very  beneficial  in  such  cases.  1 
sometimes  suffered  the  extremity  of  exhaustion, 
and  was  in  a  tolerably  fair  way  of  atoning  for  my 
love  of  the  prairie  by  resting  thfere  forever.  I 
tried  repose  and  a  very  sparing  diet.  For  a  long 
time,  with  exemplary  patience,  I  lounged  about 
the  camp,  or  at  the  utmost  staggered  over  to  the 
Indian  village,  and  walked  faint  and  dizzy  among 
the  lodges.  It  would  not  do,  and  I  bethought  me 
of  starvation.  During  five  days  I  sustained  life  on 
one  small  biscuit  a  day.  At  the  end  of  that  time 
I  was  weaker  than  before,  but  the  disorder  seemed 
shaken  in  its  stronghold,  and  very  gradually  I  be- 
gan to  resume  a  less  rigid  diet."  It  did  not  seem 
prudent  to  Parkman  to  let  the  signs  of  physical 
ailment  become  conspicuous,  "  since  in  that  case 
a  horse,  a  rifle,  a  pair  of  pistols,  and  a  red  shirt 
might  have  offered  temptations  too  strong  for 
aboriginal  virtue."  Therefore,  in  order  that  his 
prestige  with  the  red  men  might  not  suffer  diminu- 
tion, he  would  "  hunt  buffalo  on  horseback  over 
a  broken  country,  when  without  the  tonic  of  the 
chase  he  could  scarcely  sit  upright  in  the  saddle." 


240  A  Century  of  Science 

The  maintenance  of  prestige  was  certainly  desir- 
able. The  Ogillalah  band  of  Sioux,  among  whom 
he  found  himseK,  were  barbarians  of  a  low  type. 
"  Neither  their  manners  nor  their  ideas  were  in  the 
slightest  degree  modified  by  contact  with  civilization. 
They  knew  nothing  of  the  power  and  real  character 
of  the  white  men,  and  their  children  would  scream 
in  terror  when  they  saw  me.  Their  religion,  super- 
stitions, and  prejudices  were  the  same  handed  down 
to  them  from  immemorial  time.  They  fought  with 
the  weapons  that  their  fathers  fought  with,  and 
wore  the  same  garments  of  skins.  They  were  liv- 
ing representatives  of  the  Stone  Age ;  for,  though 
their  lances  and  arrows  were  tipped  with  iron  pro- 
cured from  the  traders,  they  still  used  the  rude 
stone  mallet  of  the  primeval  world."  These  sav- 
ages welcomed  Parkman  and  one  of  his  white 
guides  with  cordial  hospitality,  and  they  were  en- 
tertained by  the  chieftain  Big  Crow,  whose  lodge 
in  the  evening  presented  a  picturesque  spectacle. 
"  A  score  or  more  of  Indians  were  seated  around 
it  in  a  circle,  their  dark,  naked  forms  just  visible 
by  the  dull  light  of  the  smouldering  fire  in  the 
middle.  The  pipe  glowed  brightly  in  the  gloom 
as  it  passed  from  hand  to  hand.  Then  a  squaw 
would  drop  a  piece  of  buffalo  fat  on  the  dull 
embers.     Instantly  a  bright  flame  would  leap  up. 


Francis  Parkman  241 

darting  its  light  to  the  very  apex  of  the  tall  coni- 
cal structure,  where  the  tops  of  the  slender  poles 
that  supported  the  covering  of  hide  were  gathered 
together.  It  gilded  the  features  of  the  Indians, 
as  with  animated  gestures  they  sat  around  it,  tell- 
ing their  endless  stories  of  war  and  hunting,  and 
displayed  rude  garments  of  skins  that  hung  around 
the  lodge  ;  the  bow,  quiver,  and  lance  suspended 
over  the  resting  place  of  the  chief,  and  the  rifles 
and  powderhorns  of  the  two  white  guests.  For 
a  moment  all  would  be  bright  as  day;  then  the 
flames  would  die  out ;  fitful  flashes  from  the  embers 
would  illumine  the  lodge,  and  then  leave  it  in  dark- 
ness. Then  the  light  would  whoUy  fade,  and  the 
lodge  and  all  within  it  be  involved  again  in  ob- 
scurity." From  stories  of  war  and  the  chase  the 
conversation  was  now  and  then  diverted  to  philo- 
sophic themes.  When  Parkman  asked  what  makes 
the  thunder,  various  opinions  were  expressed ;  but 
one  old  wrinkled  feUow,  named  Red  Water,  assev- 
erated that  he  had  always  known  what  it  was. 
"  It  was  a  great  black  bird ;  and  once  he  had  seen 
it  in  a  dream  swooping  down  from  the  Black  HiUs, 
with  its  loud  roaring  wings  ;  and  when  it  flapped 
them  over  a  lake,  they  struck  lightning  from  the 
water."  Another  old  man  said  that  the  wicked 
thunder  had  killed  his  brother  last  summer,  but 


242  A  Century  of  Science 

doggedly  refused  to  give  any  particulars.  It  was 
afterwards  learned  that  this  brother  was  a  mem- 
ber of  a  thunder-fighting  fraternity  of  priests  or 
medicine  men.  On  the  approach  of  a  storm  they 
would  "take  their  bows  and  arrows,  their  magic 
drum,  and  a  sort  of  whistle  made  out  of  the  wing 
bone  of  the  war  eagle,  and,  thus  equipped,  run  out 
and  fire  at  the  rising  cloud,  whooping,  yelling, 
whistling,  and  beating  their  drum,  to  frighten  it 
down  again.  One  afternoon  a  heavy  black  cloud 
was  coming  up,  and  they  repaired  to  the  top  of  a 
hill,  where  they  brought  all  their  magic  artillery 
into  play  against  it.  But  the  undaunted  thunder, 
refusing  to  be  terrified,  darted  out  a  bright  flash, 
which  struck  [the  aforesaid  brother]  dead  as  he 
was  in  the  very  act  of  shaking  his  long  iron-pointed 
lance  against  it.  The  rest  scattered,  and  ran  yell- 
ing in  an  ecstasy  of  superstitious  terror  back  to 
their  lodges." 

One  should  read  Mr.  Parkman's  detailed  nar- 
rative of  the  strange  life  of  these  people,  and  the 
manner  of  his  taking  part  in  it :  how  he  called  the 
villagers  together  and  regaled  them  sumptuously 
with  boiled  dog,  and  made  them  a  skilful  speech, 
in  which  he  quite  satisfied  them  as  to  his  reasons 
for  coming  to  dwell  among  them ;  how  a  warm 
friendship  grew  up  between  himself  and  the  ven- 


Francis  Parkman  243 

erable  Red  Water,  who  was  the  custodian  of  an 
immense  fund  of  folk  lore,  but  was  apt  to  be  super- 
stitiously  afraid  of  imparting  any  of  it  to  strangers ; 
how  war  parties  were  projected  and  abandoned; 
how  buffalo  and  antelope  were  hunted,  and  how 
life  was  carried  on  in  the  dull  intervals  between 
such  occupations.  If  one  were  to  keep  on  quoting 
what  is  of  especial  interest  in  the  book,  one  would 
have  to  quote  the  whole  of  it.  But  one  character- 
istic portrait  contains  so  much  insight  into  Indian 
life  that  I  cannot  forbear  giving  it.  It  is  the 
sketch  of  a  young  feUow  called  the  Hail-Storm, 
as  Parkman  found  him  one  evening  on  his  return 
from  the  chase :  "  his  light  graceful  figure  reclining 
on  the  ground  in  an  easy  attitude,  while  .  .  .  near 
him  lay  the  fresh  skin  of  a  female  elk  which  he 
had  just  killed  among  the  mountains,  only  a  mile 
or  two  from  camp.  No  doubt  the  boy's  heart  was 
elated  with  triumph,  but  he  betrayed  no  sign  of 
it.  He  even  seemed  totally  unconscious  of  our 
approach,  and  his  handsome  face  had  all  the  tran- 
quillity of  Indian  self-control,  —  a  self-control  which 
prevents  the  exhibition  of  emotion  without  restrain- 
ing the  emotion  itself.  It  was  about  two  months 
since  I  had  known  the  Hail-Storm,  and  within 
that  time  his  character  had  remarkably  developed. 
When  I  first  saw  him,  he  was  just  emerging  from 


244  A  Century  of  Science 

the  habits  and  feehngs  of  the  boy  into  the  ambition 
of  the  hunter  and  warrior.  He  had  lately  killed 
his  first  deer,  and  this  had  excited  his  aspirations 
for  distinction.  Since  that  time  he  had  been  con- 
tinually in  search  for  game,  and  no  young  hunter 
in  the  village  had  been  so  active  or  so  fortunate 
as  he.  All  this  success  had  produced  a  marked 
change  in  his  character.  As  I  first  remembered 
him,  he  always  shunned  the  society  of  the  young 
squaws,  and  was  extremely  bashful  and  sheepish 
in  their  presence ;  but  now,  in  the  confidence  of 
his  new  reputation,  he  began  to  assume  the  airs 
and  arts  of  a  man  of  gallantry.  He  wore  his  red 
blanket  dashingly  over  his  left  shoulder,  painted 
his  cheeks  every  day  with  vermilion,  and  hung  pen- 
dants of  shells  in  his  ears.  If  I  observed  aright, 
he  met  with  very  good  success  in  his  new  pursuits  ; 
still  the  Hail-Storm  had  much  to  accomplish  before 
he  attained  the  full  standing  of  a  warrior.  Gal- 
lantly as  he  began  to  bear  himself  before  the  wo- 
men and  girls,  he  was  still  timid  and  abashed  in 
the  presence  of  the  chiefs  and  old  men ;  for  he  had 
never  yet  killed  a  man,  or  stricken  the  dead  body 
of  an  enemy  in  battle.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
handsome  smooth-faced  boy  burned  with  desire  to 
flesh  his  maiden  scalping  knife,  and  I  would  not 
have  encamped  alone  with  him  without  watching 


Francis  Parkman  245 

his  movements  with  a  suspicious  eye."  Mr.  Park- 
man  once  told  me  that  it  was  rare  for  a  young 
brave  to  obtain  full  favour  with  the  women  with- 
out having  at  least  one  scalp  to  show ;  and  this 
fact  was  one  of  the  secret  sources  of  danger  which 
the  ordinary  white  visitor  would  never  think  of. 
Peril  is  also  liable  to  lurk  in  allowing  one's  self  to 
be  placed  in  a  ludicrous  light  among  these  people ; 
accordingly,  whenever  such  occasions  arose,  Park- 
man  knew  enough  to  "  maintain  a  rigid,  inflexible 
countenance,  and  [thus]  wholly  escaped  their  sal- 
lies." He  understood  that  his  rifle  and  pistols 
were  the  only  friends  on  whom  he  could  invariably 
rely  when  alone  among  Indians.  His  own  observa- 
tion taught  him  "  the  extreme  folly  of  confidence, 
and  the  utter  impossibility  of  foreseeing  to  what 
sudden  acts  the  strange,  unbridled  impulses  of  an 
Indian  may  urge  him.  When  among  this  people, 
danger  is  never  so  near  as  when  you  are  unpre- 
pared for  it,  never  Iso  remote  as  when  you  are 
armed  and  on  the  alert  to  meet  it  at  any  moment. 
Nothing  offers  so  strong  a  temptation  to  their 
ferocious  instincts  as  the  appearance  of  timidity, 
weakness,  or  security." 

The  immense  importance  of  this  sojourn  in  the 
wilderness,  in  its  relation  to  Parkman's  life  work,  is 
obvious.     Knowledge,  intrepidity,  and  tact  carried 


246  A  Century  of  Science 

him  through  it  unscathed,  and  good  luck  kept  him 
clear  of  encounters  with  hostile  Indians,  in  which 
these  qualities  might  not  have  sufficed  to  avert  de- 
struction. It  was  rare  good  fortune  that  kept  his 
party  from  meeting  with  an  enemy  during  five 
months  of  travel  through  a  dangerous  region. 
Scarcely  three  weeks  after  he  had  reached  the  con- 
fines of  civilization,  the  Pawnees  and  Comanches 
began  a  systematized  series  of  hostilities,  and  "  at- 
tacked .  .  .  every  party,  large  or  small,  that  passed 
during  the  next  six  months." 

During  this  adventurous  experience,  says  Park- 
man,  "  my  business  was  observation,  and  I  was 
willing  to  pay  dearly  for  the  opportunity  of  exer- 
cising it."  A  heavy  price  was  exacted  of  him,  not 
by  red  men,  but  by  that  "  subtle  personage"  whom 
he  had  tried  to  take  by  the  horns,  and  who  seems 
to  have  resented  such  presumption.  Toward  the 
end  of  the  journey  Parkman  found  himself  iU 
in  much  the  same  way  as  at  the  beginning,  and 
craved  medical  advice.  It  was  in  mid-September, 
on  a  broad  meadow  in  the  wild  valley  of  the  Ar- 
kansas, where  his  party  had  fallen  in  with  a  huge 
Santa  Fe  caravan  of  white-topped  wagons,  with 
great  droves  of  mules  and  horses ;  and  we  may  let 
Parkman  tell  the  story  in  his  own  words,  in  the 
last  of  our  extracts  from  his  fascinating  book.     One 


Francis  Parkman  247 

of  the  guides  had  told  him  that  in  this  caravan  was 
a  physician  from  St.  Louis,  by  the  name  of  Dobbs, 
of  the  very  highest  standing  in  his  profession. 
"  Without  at  all  believing  him,  I  resolved  to  con- 
sult this  eminent  practitioner.  Walking  over  to 
the  camp,  I  found  him  lying  sound  asleep  under 
one  of  the  wagons.  He  offered  in  his  own  person 
but  indifferent  evidence  of  his  skill ;  for  it  was  five 
months  since  I  had  seen  so  cadaverous  a  face. 
His  hat  had  fallen  off,  and  his  yellow  hair  was  all 
in  disorder  ;  one  of  his  arms  supplied  the  place  of 
a  pillow;  his  trousers  were  wrinkled  halfway  up 
to  his  knees,  and  he  was  covered  with  little  bits 
of  grass  and  straw  upon  which  he  had  rolled  in  his 
uneasy  slumber.  A  Mexican  stood  near,  and  I 
made  him  a  sign  to  touch  the  doctor.  Up  sprang 
the  learned  Dobbs,  and  sitting  upright  rubbed  his 
eyes  and  looked  about  him  in  bewilderment.  I 
regretted  the  necessity  of  disturbing  him,  and  said 
I  had  come  to  ask  professional  advice. 

" '  Your  system,  sir,  is  in  a  disordered  state,' 
said  he  solemnly,  after  a  short  examination.  I 
inquired  what  might  be  the  particular  species  of 
disorder.  '  Evidently  a  morbid  action  of  the  liver,' 
replied  the  medical  man.  '  I  will  give  you  a  pre- 
scription.' 

"  Repairing  to  the  back  of  one  of  the  covered 


24'8  A  Century  of  Science 

wagons,  lie  scrambled  in  ;  for  a  moment  I  could  see 
nothing  of  him  but  his  boots.  At  length  he  pro- 
duced a  box  which  he  had  extracted  from  some 
dark  recess  within,  and  opening  it  presented  me 
with  a  folded  paper.  '  What  is  it  ? '  said  I.  '  Calo- 
mel,' said  the  doctor. 

"  Under  the  circumstances  I  would  have  taken 
almost  anything.  There  was  not  enough  to  do  me 
much  harm,  and  it  might  possibly  do  good ;  so  at 
camp  that  night  I  took  the  poison  instead  of  sup- 
per." 

After  the  return  from  the  wilderness  Parkman 
found  his  physical  condition  rather  worse  than  bet- 
ter. The  trouble  with  the  eyes  continued,  and  we 
begin  to  find  mention  of  a  lameness  ^vhich  was 
sometimes  serious  enough  to  confine  him  to  the 
house,  and  which  evidently  lasted  a  long  time ; 
but  from  this  he  seems  to  have  recovered.  My 
personal  acquaintance  with  him  began  in  1872, 
and  I  never  noticed  any  symptoms  of  lameness, 
though  I  remember  taking  several  pleasant  walks 
with  him.  Perhaps  the  source  of  the  lameness 
may  be  indicated  in  the  following  account  of  his 
condition  in  1848,  cited  from  the  fragment  of  auto- 
biography in  which  he  uses  the  third  person  :  "To 
the  maladies  of  the  prairie  succeeded  a  suite  of  ex- 
hausting disorders,  so  reducing  him  that  circulation 


Francis  Parkman  240 

of  the  extremities  ceased,  the  light  of  the  sun  be- 
came insupportable,  and  a  wild  whirl  possessed  his 
brain,  joined  to  a  universal  turmoil  of  the  nervous 
system  which  put  his  philosophy  to  the  sharpest  test 
it  had  hitherto  known.  All  collapsed,  in  short, 
but  the  tenacious  strength  of  muscles  hardened  by 
long  activity."  In  1851,  whether  due  or  not  to 
disordered  circulation,  there  came  an  effusion  of 
water  on  the  left  knee,  which  for  the  next  two 
years  prevented  walking. 

It  was  between  1848  and  1851  that  Parkman 
was  engaged  in  writing  "  The  Conspiracy  of  Pon- 
tiac."  He  felt  that  no  regimen  could  be  worse  for 
him  than  idleness,  and  that  no  tonic  could  be  more 
bracing  than  work  in  pursuance  of  the  lofty  purpose 
which  had  now  attained  maturity  in  his  mind.  He 
had  to  contend  with  a  "  triple-headed  monster :  " 
first,  the  weakness  of  the  eyes,  which  had  come  to 
be  such  that  he  could  not  keep  them  open  to  the 
light  while  writing  his  own  name  ;  secondly,  the 
incapacity  for  sustained  attention ;  and  thirdly, 
the  indisposition  to  putting  forth  mental  effort. 
Evidently,  the  true  name  of  this  triple-headed  mon- 
ster was  nervous  exhaustion  ;  there  was  too  much 
soul  for  the  body  to  which  it  was  yoked. 

"  To  be  made  with  impunity,  the  attempt  must 
be   made   with   the   most   watchful  caution.     He 


250  A  Century  of  Science 

caused  a  wooden  frame  to  be  constructed  of  the 
size  and  shape  of  a  sheet  of  letter  paper.  Stout 
wires  were  fixed  horizontally  across  it,  half  an  inch 
apart,  and  a  movable  back  of  thick  pasteboard  fitted 
behind  them.  The  paper  for  writing  was  placed 
between  the  pasteboard  and  the  wires,  guided  by 
which,  and  using  a  black  lead  crayon,  he  could 
write  not  illegibly  with  closed  eyes.  He  was  at  the 
time  absent  from  home,  on  Staten  Island,  where, 
and  in  the  neighbouring  city  of  New  York,  he  had 
friends  who  willingly  offered  their  aid.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  to  which  half  of  humanity  nearly  all  these 
kind  assistants  belonged.  He  chose  for  a  begin- 
ning that  part  of  the  work  which  offered  fewest  dif- 
ficulties and  with  the  subject  of  which  he  was  most 
familiar  ;  namely,  the  Siege  of  Detroit.  The  books 
and  documents,  already  partially  arranged,  were  pro- 
cured from  Boston,  and  read  to  him  at  such  times  as 
he  could  listen  to  them ;  the  length  of  each  reading 
never  without  injury  much  exceeding  half  an  hour, 
and  periods  of  several  days  frequently  occurring 
during  which  he  could  not  listen  at  all.  Notes  were 
made  by  him  with  closed  eyes,  and  afterwards  de- 
ciphered and  read  to  him  tiU  he  had  mastered  them. 
For  the  first  half-year  the  rate  of  composition  aver- 
aged about  six  lines  a  day.  The  portion  of  the  book 
thus  composed  was  afterwards  partially  rewritten. 


Francis  Parkman  251 

"  His  health  improved  under  the  process,  and 
the  remainder  of  the  volmne  —  in  other  words, 
nearly  the  whole  of  it  —  was  composed  in  Boston, 
while  pacing  in  the  twilight  of  a  large  garret,  the 
only  exercise  which  the  sensitive  condition  of  his 
sight  permitted  him  in  an  unclouded  day  while  the 
sun  was  above  the  horizon.  It  was  afterwards 
written  down  from  dictation  by  relatives  under  the 
same  roof,  to  whom  he  was  also  indebted  for  the 
preparatory  readings.  His  progress  was  much  less 
tedious  than  at  the  outset,  and  the  history  was 
complete  in  about  two  years  and  a  half." 

The  book  composed  under  such  formidable  dif- 
ficulties was  published  in  1851.  It  did  not  at 
once  meet  with  the  reception  which  it  deserved. 
The  reading  public  did  not  expect  to  find  enter- 
tainment in  American  history.  In  the  New  Eng- 
land of  those  days  the  general  reader  had  heard  a 
good  deal  about  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  Salem 
Witchcraft,  and  remembered  hazily  the  stories  of 
Hannah  Dustin  and  of  Putnam  and  the  wolf,  but 
could  not  be  counted  on  for  much  else  before  the 
Revolution.  I  remember  once  hearing  it  said  that 
the  story  of  the  "  Old  French  War "  was  some- 
thing of  no  more  interest  or  value  for  Americans 
of  to-day  than  the  cuneiform  records  of  an  insur- 
rection in  ancient  Nineveh ;  and  so  slow  are  peo- 


252  A  Century  of  Science 

pie  in  gaining  a  correct  historical  perspective  that 
within  the  last  ten  years  the  mighty  world  strug- 
gle in  which  Pitt  and  Frederick  were  allied  is 
treated  in  a  book  entitled  ''  Minor  Wars  of  the 
United  States  "  !  In  1851  the  soil  was  not  yet 
ready  for  the  seed  sown  by  Parkman,  and  he  did 
not  quickly  or  suddenly  become  popular.  But 
after  the  publication  of  the  "  Pioneers  of  France  " 
in  1865  his  fame  gi-ew  rapidly.  In  those  days  I 
took  especial  pleasure  in  praising  his  books,  from 
the  feeling  that  they  were  not  so  generally  known 
as  they  ought  to  be,  particularly  in  England, 
where  he  has  since  come  to  be  recognized  as  fore- 
most among  American  writers  of  history.  In  1879 
I  had  been  giving  a  course  of  lectures  at  Univer- 
sity College,  London,  on  "  America's  Place  in  His- 
tory," and  shortly  afterwards  repeated  this  course 
at  the  little  Hawthorne  Hall,  on  Park  Street,  in 
Boston.  One  evening,  having  occasion  to  allude 
briefly  to  Pontiac  and  his  conspiracy,  I  said,  among 
other  things,  that  it  was  memorable  as  "  the  theme 
of  one  of  the  most  briUiant  and  fascinating  books 
that  have  ever  been  written  by  any  historian  since 
the  days  of  Herodotus."  The  words  were  scarcely 
out  of  my  mouth  when  I  happened  to  catch  sight 
of  Mr.  Parkman  in  my  audience.  I  had  not  ob- 
served   him   before,  though    he  was  seated  quite 


Francis  Parhman  253 

near  me.  I  shall  never  forget  the  sudden  start 
which  he  gave,  and  the  heightened  colour  of  his 
noble  face,  with  its  curious  look  of  surprise  and 
pleasure,  —  an  expression  as  honest  and  simple  as 
one  might  witness  in  a  rather  shy  schoolboy  sud- 
denly singled  out  for  praise.  I  was  so  glad  that 
I  had  said  what  I  did  without  thinking  of  his 
hearing  me. 

In  May,  1850,  while  at  work  upon  this  great 
book,  Mr.  Parkman  married  Catherine,  daughter 
of  Jacob  Bigelow,  an  eminent  physician  of  Boston. 
Of  this  marriage  there  were  three  children,  —  a 
son,  who  died  while  an  infant,  and  two  daughters, 
who  still  survive.  Mrs.  Parkman  died  in  1858, 
and  her  husband  never  married  again. 

During  these  years,  when  his  complicated  ail- 
ments for  a  time  made  historical  work  impossible 
even  to  this  man  of  Titanic  will,  he  assuaged  his 
cravings  for  spiritual  creation  by  writing  a  novel, 
"  Vassall  Morton."  Of  his  books  it  is  the  only 
one  that  I  have  never  seen,  and  I  can  speak  of  it 
only  from  hearsay.  It  is  said  to  be  not  without 
signal  merits,  but  it  did  not  find  a  great  many 
readers,  and  its  author  seems  not  to  have  cared 
much  for  it.  The  main  current  of  his  interest  in 
life  was  too  strong  to  allow  of  much  diversion  into 
side  channels. 


254  A  Century  of  Science 

"  Meanwhile,"  to  cite  his  own  words,  "  the  Fac- 
ulty of  Medicine  were  not  idle,  displaying  that 
exuberance  of  resource  for  which  that  remarka- 
ble profession  is  justly  famed.  The  wisest,  indeed, 
did  nothing,  commending  his  patient  to  time  and 
faith ;  but  the  activity  of  his  brethren  made  full 
amends  for  this  masterly  inaction.  One  was  for 
tonics,  another  for  a  diet  of  milk ;  one  counselled 
galvanism,  another  hydropathy ;  one  scarred  him 
behind  the  neck  with  nitric  acid,  another  drew 
red-hot  irons  along  his  spine  with  a  view  of  en- 
livening that  organ.  Opinion  was  divergent  as 
practice.  One  assured  him  of  recovery  in  six 
years ;  another  thought  that  he  would  never  re- 
cover. Another,  with  grave  circumlocution,  lest 
the  patient  should  take  fright,  informed  him  that 
he  was  the  victim  of  an  organic  disease  of  the 
brain  which  must  needs  dispatch  him  to  another 
world  within  a  twelvemonth ;  and  he  stood  amazed 
at  the  smile  of  an  auditor  who  neither  cared  for 
the  announcement  nor  believed  it.  Another,  an 
eminent  physiologist  of  Paris,  after  an  acquaint- 
ance of  three  months,  one  day  told  him  that  from 
the  nature  of  the  disorder  he  had  at  first  supposed 
that  it  must,  in  accordance  with  precedent,  be  at- 
tended with  insanity,  and  had  ever  since  been 
studying  him  to  discover  under  what  form  the  sup- 


Francis  Parkman  25b 

posed  aberration  declared  itself;  adding,  with  a 
somewhat  humorous  look,  that  his  researches  had 
not  been  rewarded  with  the  smallest  success." 

Soon  after  his  marriage  Mr.  Parkman  became 
possessor  of  a  small  estate  of  three  acres  or  so  in 
Jamaica  Plain,  on  the  steep  shore  of  the  beautiful 
pond.  It  was  a  charming  place,  thoroughly  Eng- 
lish in  its  homelike  simplicity  and  refined  com- 
fort. The  house  stood  near  the  entrance,  and  on 
not  far  from  the  same  level  as  the  roadway  ;  but 
from  the  side  and  rear  the  ground  fell  off  rapidly, 
so  that  it  was  quite  a  sharp  descent  to  the  pretty 
little  wharf  or  dock,  where  one  might  sit  and  gaze 
on  the  placid,  dreamy  water.  It  is  with  that 
lovely  home  that  Parkman  is  chiefly  associated 
in  my  mind.  Twenty  years  ago,  while  I  was  act- 
ing as  librarian  at  Harvard  University,  he  was  a 
member  of  the  corporation,  and  I  had  frequent  oc- 
casion to  consult  with  him  on  matters  of  business. 
At  such  times  I  would  drive  over  from  Cambridge 
or  take  a  street  car  to  Jamaica  Plain,  sure  of  a 
cordial  greeting  and  a  pleasant  chat,  in  which 
business  always  received  its  full  measure  of  jus- 
tice, and  was  then  thrust  aside  for  more  inspiring 
themes.  The  memory  of  one  day  in  particular 
wiU  go  with  me  through  life,  —  an  enchanted  day 
in  the  season  of  apple  blossoms,  when  I  went  in 


256  A  Century  of  Science 

the  morning  for  a  brief  errand,  taking  with  me 
one  of  my  little  sons.  The  brief  errand  ended  in 
spending  the  whole  day  and  staying  until  late  in 
the  evening,  while  the  world  of  thought  was  ran- 
sacked and  some  of  its  weightiest  questions  pro- 
visionally settled  !  Nor  was  either  greenhouse  or 
garden  or  pond  neglected.  At  such  times  there 
was  nothing  in  Parkman's  looks  or  manner  to 
suggest  the  invalid.  He  and  I  were  members  of 
a  small  club  of  a  dozen  or  more  congenial  spirits 
who  now  for  nearly  thirty  years  have  met  once  a 
month  to  dine  together.  When  he  came  to  the 
dinner  he  was  always  one  of  the  most  charming 
companions  at  the  table ;  but  ill  health  often  pre- 
vented his  coming,  and  in  the  latter  years  of  his 
life  he  never  came.  I  knew  nothing  of  the  serious 
nature  of  his  troubles  ;  and  when  I  heard  the 
cause  of  his  absence  alleged,  I  used  to  suppose  that 
it  was  merely  some  need  for  taking  care  of  diges- 
tion or  avoiding  late  hours  that  kept  him  at  home. 
What  most  impressed  one,  in  talking  with  him, 
was  the  combination  of  power  and  alertness  with 
extreme  gentleness.  Nervous  irritability  was  the 
last  thing  of  which  I  should  have  suspected  him. 
He  never  made  the  slightest  allusion  to  his  ill 
health ;  he  would  probably  have  deemed  it  incon- 
sistent with  good  breeding   to   intrude  upon   his 


Francis  Parhman  257 

friends  with  such  topics ;  and  his  appearance  was 
always  most  cheerful.  His  friend  (our  common 
friend),  the  late  Octavius  Frothingham,  says  of 
him  :  "  Again  and  again  he  had  to  restrain  the 
impulse  to  say  vehement  things,  or  to  do  violent 
deeds  ^vithout  the  least  provocation ;  but  he  main- 
tained so  absolutely  his  moral  seK-control  that 
none  but  the  closest  observer  would  notice  any 
deviation  from  the  most  perfect  calm  and  se- 
renity." I  can  testify  that  until  after  Mr.  Park- 
man's  death  I  had  never  dreamed  of  the  existence 
of  any  such  deviation. 

Garden  and  greenhouse  formed  a  very  impor- 
tant part  of  the  home  by  Jamaica  Pond.  Mr. 
Parkman's  love  for  Nature  was  in  no  way  more 
conspicuously  shown  than  in  his  diligence  and 
skill  in  cultivating  flowers.  It  is  often  observed 
that  plants  will  grow  for  some  persons,  but  not 
for  others  ;  one  man's  conservatory  will  be  heavy 
with  verdure,  gorgeous  in  its  colours,  and  redolent 
of  sweet  odours,  while  his  neighbour's  can  show 
nothing  but  a  forlorn  assemblage  of  pots  and  sticks. 
The  difference  is  due  to  the  loving  care  which 
learns  and  humours  the  idiosyncrasies  of  each  in- 
dividual thing  that  grows,  the  keen  observation 
of  the  naturalist  supplemented  by  the  watchful 
solicitude  of  the  nurse.     Among  the  indications 


258  A  Century  of  Science 

of  rare  love  and  knowledge  of  Nature  is  marked 
success  in  inducing  her  to  bring  forth  her  most 
exquisite  creations,  the  flowers.  As  an  expert  in 
horticulture  Parkman  achieved  celebrity.  His  gar- 
den and  greenhouse  had  extraordinary  things  to 
show.  As  he  pointed  out  to  me  on  my  first 
visit  to  them,  he  followed  Darwinian  methods  and 
originated  new  varieties  of  plants.  The  Lilium 
Parkmani  has  long  been  famous  among  florists. 
He  was  also  eminent  in  the  culture  of  roses,  and 
author  of  a  work  entitled  "  The  Book  of  Koses," 
which  was  published  in  1866.  He  was  President 
of  the  Horticultural  Society,  and  at  one  time 
Professor  of  Horticulture  in  Harvard  University. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  beneficial  effects 
of  these  pursuits.  It  is  wholesome  to  be  out  of 
doors  with  spade  and  trowel  and  sprinkler  ;  there 
is  something  tonic  in  the  aroma  of  fresh  damp 
loam  ;  and  nothing  is  more  restful  to  the  soul  than 
daily  sympathetic  intercourse  with  flowering  plants. 
It  was  surely  here  that  Parkman  found  his  best 
medicine. 

When  he  entered,  in  1851,  upon  his  great  work 
on  "  France  and  England  in  the  New  World,"  he 
had  before  him  the  task  "  of  tracing  out,  collecting, 
indexing,  arranging,  and  digesting  a  great  mass  of 
incongruous  material  scattered  on  both  sides  of  the 


Francis  Parkman  259 

Atlantic."  A  considerable  portion  of  this  material 
was  in  manuscript,  and  involved  much  tedious  ex- 
ploration and  the  employment  of  trained  copyists. 
It  was  necessary  to  study  carefully  the  catalogues 
of  many  European  libraries,  and  to  open  correspond- 
ence with  such  scholars  and  public  officials  in  both 
hemispheres  as  might  be  able  to  point  to  the  where- 
abouts of  fresh  sources  of  information.  Work  of 
this  sort,  as  one  bit  of  clue  leads  to  another,  is  ca- 
pable of  arousing  the  emotion  of  pursuit  to  a  very 
high  degree ;  and  I  believe  the  effect  of  it  upon 
Parkman's  health  must  have  been  good,  in  spite 
of,  or  rather  because  of,  its  difficulties.  The 
chase  was  carried  on  until  his  manuscript  trea^- 
sures  had  been  brought  to  an  extraordinary  de- 
gree of  completeness.  These  made  his  library 
quite  remarkable.  In  printed  books  it  was  far  less 
rich.  He  had  not  the  tastes  of  a  bibliophile,  and 
did  not  feel  it  necessary,  as  Freeman  did,  to  own 
aU  the  books  he  used.  His  library  of  printed 
books,  which  at  his  death  went  to  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, was  a  very  small  one  for  a  scholar,  —  about 
twenty-five  hundred  volumes,  including  more  or 
less  of  Greek  and  Latin  Uterature  and  theology 
inherited  from  his  father.  His  manuscripts,  as  I 
have  already  mentioned,  went  to  the  library  of 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


260  A  Century  of  Science 

When  the  manuscripts  had  come  into  his  hands, 
an  arduous  labour  was  begun.  All  had  to  be  read 
to  him  and  taken  in  slowly,  bit  by  bit.  The  inca- 
pacity to  keep  steadily  at  work  made  it  impossible 
to  employ  regular  assistants  profitably;  and  for 
readers  he  either  depended  upon  members  of  his 
own  family  or  called  in  pupils  from  the  public 
schools.  Once  he  speaks  of  having  had  a  well- 
trained  young  man,  who  was  an  excellent  linguist ; 
on  another  occasion  it  was  a  schoolgirl  "  ignorant 
of  any  tongue  but  het  own,"  and  "  the  eifect,  though 
highly  amusing  to  bystanders,  was  far  from  being 
so  to  the  person  endeavouring  to  follow  the  meaning 
of  this  singular  jargon."  The  larger  part  of  the 
documents  used  in  preparing  the  earlier  volumes 
were  in  seventeenth-century  French,  which,  though 
far  from  being  Old  French,  is  enough  unlike  the 
nineteenth-century  speech  to  have  troubled  Park- 
man's  readers,  and  thus  to  have  worried  his  ears. 

As  Frothingham  describes  his  method,  when 
the  manuscripts  were  slowly  read  to  him,  "first 
the  chief  points  were  considered,  then  the  details 
of  the  story  were  gone  over  carefully  and  minutely. 
As  the  reading  went  on  he  made  notes,  first  of  es- 
sential matters,  then  of  non-essential.  After  this 
he  welded  ever3rthing  together,  made  the  narrative 
completely  his  own,  infused  into  it  his  own  fire, 


Francis  Parhman  261 

quickened  it  by  his  own  imagination,  and  made  it, 
as  it  were,  a  living  experience,  so  that  his  books 
read  like  personal  reminiscences.  It  was  certainly 
a  slow  and  painful  process,  but  the  result  more 
than  justified  the  labour." 

In  the  fragment  of  autobiography  already  quoted, 
which  Mr.  Parkman  left  with  Dr.  Ellis  in  1868, 
but  which  was  apparently  written  in  1865,  he  says : 
"  One  year,  four  years,  and  numerous  short  inter- 
vals lasting  from  a  day  to  a  month  represent  the 
literary  interruptions  since  the  work  in  hand  was  be- 
gun. Under  the  most  favourable  conditions  it  was 
a  slow  and  doubtful  navigation,  beset  with  reefs 
and  breakers,  demanding  a  constant  lookout  and  a 
constant  throwing  of  the  lead.  Of  late  years,  how- 
ever, the  condition  of  the  sight  has  so  far  improved 
as  to  permit  reading,  not  exceeding  on  the  average 
five  minutes  at  one  time.  This  modicum  of  power, 
though  apparently  trifling,  proves  of  the  greatest 
service,  since  by  a  cautious  management  its  appli- 
cation may  be  extended.  By  reading  for  one  min- 
ute, and  then  resting  for  an  equal  time,  this  alter- 
nate process  may  generally  be  continued  for  about 
half  an  hour.  Then  after  a  sufficient  interval  it 
may  be  repeated,  often  three  or  four  times  in  the 
course  of  the  day.  By  this  means  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  volume  now  offered  ["  Pioneers  "]  has  been 


262  A  Century  of  Science 

composed.  .  .  .  How  far,  by  a  process  combining 
the  slowness  of  the  tortoise  with  the  uncertainty 
of  the  hare,  an  undertaking  of  close  and  extended 
research  can  be  advanced,  is  a  question  to  solve 
which  there  is  no  aid  from  precedent,  since  it  does 
not  appear  that  an  attempt  under  similar  circum- 
stances has  hitherto  been  made.  The  writer  looks, 
however,  for  a  fair  degree  of  success." 

After  1865  the  progress  was  certainly  much 
more  rapid  than  before.  The  next  fourteen  years 
witnessed  the  publication  of  "  The  Jesuits,"  "  La 
Salle,"  "  The  Old  Kegime,"  and  "  Frontenac," 
and  saw  "  Montcalm  and  Wolfe  "  well  under  way  ; 
while  the  "  Half -Century  of  Conflict,"  interven- 
ing between  "Frontenac"  and  "Montcalm  and 
Wolfe,"  was  reserved  until  the  last-mentioned  work 
should  be  done,  for  the  same  reason  that  led  Her- 
bert Spencer  to  postpone  the  completing  of  his 
"Sociology"  until  he  should  have  finished  his 
"  Principles  of  Ethics." .  In  view  of  life's  vicissi- 
tudes, it  was  prudent  to  make  sure  of  the  crown- 
ing work,  at  all  events,  leaving  some  connecting 
links  to  be  inserted  afterwards.  As  one  obstacle 
after  another  was  surmounted,  as  one  grand  divi- 
sion of  the  work  after  another  became  an  ac- 
complished fact,  the  effect  upon  Parkman's  con- 
dition must  have  been  bracing,  and  he  seems  to 


Francis  Parkman  263 

have  acquired  fresh  impetus  as  he  approached  the 
goal. 

For  desultory  work  in  the  shape  of  magazine  ar- 
ticles he  had  little  leisure  ;  but  two  essays  of  his, 
on  "  The  Failure  of  Universal  Suffrage  "  and  on 
"  The  Reasons  against  Woman  Suffrage,"  are  very 
thoughtful,  and  worthy  of  serious  consideration. 
In  questions  of  political  pliilosophy,  his  conclusions, 
which  were  reached  from  a  very  wide  and  impar- 
tial survey  of  essential  facts,  always  seemed  to  me 
of  the  highest  value. 

When  I  look  back  upon  Parkman's  noble  life, 
I  think  of  Mendelssohn's  chorus,  "  He  that  shall 
endure  to  the  end,"  with  its  chaste  and  severely 
beautiful  melody,  and  the  calm,  invincible  faith 
which  it  expresses.  After  all  the  harrowing  years 
of  doubt  and  distress,  the  victory  was  such  in  its 
magnitude  as  has  been  granted  to  but  few  mortals 
to  win.  He  lived  to  see  his  life's  work  done  ;  the 
thought  of  his  eighteenth  year  was  realized  in  his 
sixty-ninth ;  and  its  greatness  had  come  to  be  ad- 
mitted throughout  the  civilized  world.  In  Septem- 
ber, 1893,  his  seventieth  year  was  completed,  and 
his  autumn  in  the  lovely  home  at  Jamaica  Plain 
was  a  pleasant  one.  On  the  first  Sunday  after- 
noon in  November  he  rowed  on  the  pond  in  his 
boat,  but  felt  ill  as  he  returned  to  the  house,  and 


264  A  Century  of  Science 

on  the  next  Wednesday,  the  8th,  he  passed  quietly 
away.  Thus  he  departed  from  a  world  which  will 
evermore  be  the  richer  and  better  for  having  once 
had  him  as  its  denizen.  The  memory  of  a  life  so 
strong  and  beautiful  is  a  precious  possession  for 
us  all. 

As  for  the  book  on  which  he  laboured  with  such 
marvellous  heroism,  a  word  may  be  said  in  conclu- 
sion. Great  in  his  natural  powers  and  great  in  the 
use  he  made  of  them,  Parkman  was  no  less  great 
in  his  occasion  and  in  his  theme.  Of  all  American 
historians  he  is  the  most  deeply  and  peculiarly 
American,  yet  he  is  at  the  same  time  the  broadest 
and  most  cosmopolitan.  The  book  which  depicts 
at  once  the  social  life  of  the  Stone  Age,  and  the 
victory  of  the  English  political  ideal  over  the  ideal 
which  France  inherited  from  imperial  Rome,  is  a 
book  for  all  mankind  and  for  all  time.  The  more 
adequately  men's  historic  perspective  gets  adjusted, 
the  greater  will  it  seem.  Strong  in  its  individ- 
uality, and  like  to  nothing  else,  it  clearly  belongs, 
I  think,  among  the  world's  few  masterpieces  of 
the  highest  rank,  along  with  the  works  of  Hero- 
dotus, Thucydides,  and  Gibbon. 

February,  1897. 


IX 

EDWARD  AUGUSTUS   FREEMAN 

The  sudden  death  of  Professor  Freeman,  last 
March  [1892],  was  a  great  calamity  to  the  world  of 
letters.  Although  his  achievements  in  the  field  of 
historical  writing  had  been  so  varied  and  voluminous, 
yet  some  of  his  most  important  themes  —  some  of 
those  which  had  been  slowly  ripening  and  most 
richly  developed  in  his  mind  —  were  still  awaiting 
literary  treatment  at  his  hands,  and  at  the  time  of 
his  death  he  had  just  finished  the  third  volume  of 
a  colossal  work  which  was  still  in  its  earlier  stages. 
His  end  was  premature,  and  it  is  with  a  keen  sense 
of  bereavement  that  we  take  this  occasion  to  pay 
a  brief  word  of  tribute  to  so  dear  and  honoured  a 
teacher. 

Edward  Augustus  Freeman,  son  of  John  Free- 
man of  Redmore  Hall,  in  Worcestershire,  was  born 
at  Harborne,  Staffordshire,  August  2,  1823.  His 
life  was  always  purely  that  of  a  scholar  and  teacher, 
and  a  chronicle  of  its  events  would  consist  chiefly 
of  the  record  of  books  published  and  offices  held 


266  A  Century  of  Science 

at  the  University  of  Oxford.  He  was  graduated 
at  Trinity  College  in  1845,  and  remained  there  as 
a  Fellow  untH  1847.  In  1857,  1863,  and  1873 
he  served  as  Examiner  in  Modern  History.  In 
1880  he  was  chosen  honorary  Fellow  of  Trinity, 
and  in  1884  FeUow  of  Oriel.  In  the  latter  year 
he  was  appointed  Regius  Professor  of  Modern  His- 
tory, succeeding  Bishop  Stubbs  in  that  position. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  enumerate  the  honorary 
degrees  which  he  received  from  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, and  from  universities  in  various  European 
countries.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  learned  societies  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the 
world.  For  many  years  he  had  been  a  Knight 
Commander  of  the  Greek  Order  of  the  Saviour. 
He  had  also  received  honours  of  knighthood  from 
Servia  and  Montenegro.  In  1868  he  was  a  can- 
didate for  Parliament,  but  failed  of  election ;  and 
that  seems  to  have  been  his  sole  venture  in  the 
world  of  politics.  His  travels  upon  the  continent 
of  Europe  were  many  and  extensive.  When  at 
home  he  lived  in  rural  seclusion,  —  "  far  from  the 
madding  crowd,"  —  upon  his  estate  at  Somerleaze, 
near  WeUs  and  its  noble  cathedral ;  only  in  these 
latter  years  he  made  a  home  for  himself,  during 
the  Oxford  terms,  at  St.  Giles  in  that  city. 

From    the   very   beginning   Freeman's   histori- 


Edward  Augustus  Freeman  267 

cal  studies  were  characterized  on  the  one  hand  by 
philosophical  breadth  of  view,  and  on  the  other 
hand  by  extreme  accuracy  of  statement,  and  such 
loving  minuteness  of  detail  as  is  apt  to  mark  the 
local  antiquary  whose  life  has  been  spent  in  study- 
ing only  one  thing.  It  was  to  the  combination  of 
these  two  characteristics  that  the  preeminent  great- 
ness of  his  historical  work  was  due.  We  see  the 
combination  already  prefigured,  and  to  some  extent 
realized,  in  his  first  book,  "  A  History  of  Architec- 
ture," published  in  1849,  although  this  can  hardly 
be  called  such  a  work  of  original  research  as  the 
books  of  his  maturer  years.  Two  years  afterward 
appeared  the  learned  "  Essay  on  the  Origin  and  De- 
velopment of  Window  Tracery  in  England,"  a  work 
which  I  do  not  feel  able  to  criticise,  but  which  I 
am  sure  is  very  charming  to  read.  I  believe  that 
this  book  was  followed  by  at  least  three  others  in 
the  same  department,  "  Architectural  Antiquities  of 
Gower,"  "The  Antiquities  of  St.  David's,"  and 
"The  Architecture  of  Llandaff  Cathedral,"  but  I 
have  never  seen  them.  In  the  prefaxje  to  the  essay  on 
window  tracery  Mr.  Freeman  alludes  to  Rev.  G.  W. 
Cox  as  his  "  friend  and  coadjutor  in  many  under- 
takings," and  I  have  heard  of  a  volume  of  poems 
"  by  G.  W.  C.  and  E.  A.  F."  published  in  those  days, 
but  I  know  no  more  about  it.     It  is  to  be  hoped  that 


268  A  Century  of  Science 

these  early  works,  which  have  become  very  scarce, 
will  before  long  be  collected  and  reprinted. 

When,  after  these  publications  on  architecture, 
Freeman  began  publishing  books  and  articles  on 
ancient  Greece  and  on  the  Saracens,  I  presume 
there  were  many  of  his  readers  who  thoughtlessly 
assumed  that  he  had  changed  his  vocation;  he 
must  more  than  once  have  had  to  answer  the  stupid 
question  why  he  had  gone  over  from  architecture 
to  history.  But  in  his  mind  the  evolution  of 
architecture  was  never  separated  from  the  course 
of  political  history ;  and  the  effect  of  these  early 
studies  in  architecture,  which  were  indeed  never 
abandoned,  but  kept  up  with  enthusiasm  in  later 
years,  was  to  give  increased  definiteness  and  con- 
creteness  to  his  presentation  of  historical  events. 
When  I  use  such  a  word  as  "  evolution  "  in  this 
connection,  I  do  not  mean  that  Mr.  Freeman  was 
in  any  sense  a  "  disciple  "  of  the  modern  evolution 
philosophy.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  he 
ever  gave  any  time  or  attention  to  the  study  of 
that  subject,  or  that  he  had  any  technical  knowledge 
even  of  its  terminology.  Whether  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  however,  he  was  an  evolutionist  in 
spirit.  From  the  outset  he  was  deeply  impressed 
with  the  solidarity  of  human  history,  and  no  stu- 
dent of  political  development  in  our  time  has  made 
more  effective  use  of  the  comparative  method. 


Edward  Augustus  Freeman  269 

From  1850  to  1863  Freeman's  published  writ- 
ings were  chiefly  concerned  with  Mediterranean 
history  viewed  on  the  broadest  scale  in  relation  to 
all  those  movements  of  progressive  humanity  which 
have  had  that  great  inland  sea  for  a  common  centre. 
Here  came  those  brilliant  essays  on  "  Ancient 
Greece  and  Mediaeval  Italy,"  "Homer  and  the 
Homeric  Age,"  "  The  Athenian  Democracy," 
"Alexander  the  Great,"  "Greece  during  the  Mace- 
donian Period,"  "Mommsen's  History  of  Eome," 
"  The  Flavian  Caesars,"  and  others  since  collected 
in  the  second  series  of  his  "  Historical  Essays."  To 
this  period  also  belongs  the  little  book  on  the  "  His- 
tory of  the  Saracens,"  based  upon  lectures  given 
at  the  Philosophical  Institution  in  Edinburgh. 

From  these  Mediterranean  studies  may  be  said 
to  have  grown  two  of  Freeman's  three  great 
works,  —  both  of  them,  unfortunately,  left  incom- 
plete at  his  death,  —  the  "  History  of  Federal  Gov- 
ernment "  and  the  "  History  of  Sicily."  Freeman 
was  remarkably  free  from  the  common  habit  — 
conunon  even  among  eminent  historians  —  of  con- 
centrating his  attention  upon  some  exceptionally 
brilliant  period  or  so-caUed  "  classical  age,"  to  the 
exclusion  of  other  ages  that  went  before  and  came 
after.  Such  a  habit  is  fatal  to  aU  correct  under- 
standing of   history,  even   that  of  the  ages  upon 


270  A  Century  of  Science 

which  attention  is  thus  unwisely  concentrated. 
Freeman  understood  that  in  some  respects,  if  not 
in  others,  the  history  of  Greece  is  just  as  impor- 
tant after  the  battle  of  Chaeronea  as  before  ;  and 
he  became  especially  interested  in  the  history  of 
the  Achaian  League  and  other  Greek  attempts 
at  federation.  Thence  grew  the  idea  of  studying 
the  development  of  federal  union  as  the  highest 
form  of  nation-building,  beginning  with  its  germs 
in  the  leagues  among  Greek  autonomous  cities. 
The  enterprise  was  arduous,  involving  as  it  did  the 
determination  of  obscure  points  in  the  history  of 
many  ages  and  countries,  more  particularly  Greece, 
Switzerland,  and  America.  The  first  volume,  con- 
taining the  general  introduction  and  the  history  of 
the  Greek  federations,  was  published  in  1863,  a  stal- 
wart octavo  of  721  pages.  It  bore  upon  the  title- 
page  a  motto  from  "  The  Federalist,"  No.  xviii.,  — 
"  Could  the  interior  structure  and  regular  operation 
of  the  Achaian  League  be  ascertained,  it  is  proba- 
ble that  more  light  might  be  thrown  by  it  on  the 
science  of  federal  government  than  by  any  of  the 
like  experiments  with  which  we  are  acquainted." 
This  book  is  of  priceless  value,  and  if  Freeman 
had  never  published  anything  more,  it  would  have 
entitled  him  to  a  place  in  the  foremost  rank  of 
historians.      It  deals  thoroughly  with  a  very  im- 


Edward  Augustus,  Freeman  271 

portant  portion  of  the  world's  history  to  which  no 
one  before  had  even  begun  to  do  justice.  Its  ad- 
mirable philosophical  spirit  is  matched  by  its  keen 
critical  insight  and  its  minute  and  exhaustive  con- 
trol of  all  sources  of  information.  Its  narrative, 
moreover,  is  f uU  of  human  interest.  Yet  it  never 
became  a  popular  book.  It  was  hard  to  make 
people  believe  that  the  Achaian  League  could  be 
interesting,  and  in  order  to  realize  the  philosophi- 
cal value  of  the  whole  story  most  readers  would 
need  to  have  the  later  portions  of  it  set  before 
their  eyes. 

But  this  noble  work,  in  some  respects  the  grand- 
est of  the  author's  conceptions,  was  never  com- 
pleted. The  first  volume  was  all  that  ever  was 
published.  For  this  fact  I  have  sometimes  heard 
Americans  offer  a  grotesque  explanation.  The  vol- 
ume published  in  1863,  in  the  middle  of  our  Civil 
War,  bore  the  title  "  History  of  Federal  Govern- 
ment, from  the  Foundation  of  the  Achaian  League 
to  the  Disruption  of  the  United  States."  This  title 
gave  offence  in  America.  It  was  too  hastily  taken 
to  indicate  that  the  author  wished  well  to  the 
Southern  Confederacy,  and  regarded  its  independ- 
ence as  an  accomplished  fact.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  title  was  ill  chosen  ;  but  to  suppose, 
as  some  people  did,  that  chagrin  at  the  success  of 


272  A  Century  of  Science 

the  Union  arms  prevented  Freeman  from  going 
on  with  his  book  was  simply  ridiculous.  It  was 
not  anything  that  happened  in  America,  but  some- 
thing that  happened  in  Europe,  which  caused 
him  to  defer  the  completion  of  his  second  volume. 
That  volume  was  to  deal  with  federal  government 
as  exemplified  in  Switzerland  and  otherwise  in  Ger- 
many ;  and  the  war  of  1866  between  Prussia  and 
Austria  marked  the  beginning  of  organic  changes 
in  Germany  which  Freeman  was  anxious  to  watch 
for  a  while  before  finishing  his  book. 

He  therefore  turned  aside  and  took  up  the  third 
of  his  three  great  works,  —  the  only  one  that  he 
lived  to  complete,  —  the  "  History  of  the  Norman 
Conquest  of  England,  its  Causes  and  its  Kesults." 
Upon  this  subject  he  had  thought  and  studied  for 
nearly  twenty  years,  or  ever  since  the  time  when 
he  was  publishing  works  on  architecture.  As  one 
turns  the  leaves  of  these  stout  volumes,  each  of 
seven  or  eight  hundred  pages,  crowded  with  minute 
and  accurate  erudition,  one  marvels  that  the  author 
could  carry  along  so  many  researches  and  of  such 
exhaustive  character  at  the  same  time.  Alike  in 
Greek,  in  German,  and  in  English  history,  along 
with  abundant  generalizations,  often  highly  original 
and  suggestive,  we  find  investigations  of  obscure 
points  in  which  every  item  of  evidence  is  weighed  as 


Edward  Augustus  Freeman  273 

in  an  apothecary's  scale,  and  in  all  these  directions 
^Freeman  was  working  at  once.  When  it  came 
to  publishing,  volume  followed  volume  with  sur- 
prising quickness.  Turning  aside  in  1866  from 
the  second  volume  of  the  "  Federal  Government " 
when  a  large  part  of  it  was  already  written.  Free- 
man brought  out  the  first  volume  of  the  "Nor- 
man Conquest "  in  1867,  the  second  in  1868,  the 
third  in  1869,  the  fourth  in  1871,  the  fifth  more 
leisurely  in  1876.  The  proportions  of  this  work 
are  eminently  characteristic  of  the  author's  his- 
torical perspective.  In  order  to  understand  the 
Norman  Conquest,  a  survey  of  all  previous  Eng- 
lish history,  and  especially  of  the  struggle  between 
Englishmen  and  Danes,  is  essential ;  and  the  first 
volume  carries  us  in  one  great  sweep  from  the  land- 
ing of  Hengist  to  the  accession  of  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor, while  the  early  history  of  Normandy  also 
receives  due  attention.  We  now  enter  the  region 
of  proximate  causes,  which  require  more  detailed 
specification,  and  the  second  volume  takes  us 
through  the  four-and-twenty  years  of  Edward's 
reign.  His  death  hurries  the  situation  to  its  dra- 
matic climax,  and  the  whole  of  the  third  volume  is 
devoted  to  the  events  of  the  single  year  1066. 
The  completion  of  the  Conquest  down  to  the  death 
of  the  Conqueror  is  treated  with  less  detail,  and 


274  A  Century  of  Science 

the  twenty-one  years  are  comprised  within  a  volume. 
Finally,  in  summing  up  the  results  of  the  great 
event,  the  last  volume  covers  two  centuries,  and 
leaves  us  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  the  king  who 
did  so  much  to  make  modern  English  history  the 
glorious  tale  that  it  has  been.  In  finishing  his 
work  upon  these  proportions,  Freeman  encoun- 
tered many  points  in  the  reign  of  WiUiam  Rufus 
that  needed  fuller  treatment,  and  so  in  1882  he 
published  in  two  volumes  the  history  of  that  reign 
as  a  sequel  to  the  "Norman  Conquest."  Taken 
as  a  whole,  the  seven  volumes  give  us  such  a  mas- 
terly philosophic  analysis  and  such  a  picturesque 
and  vivid  narrative  of  the  history  of  England  in 
the  eleventh  century  that  it  must  be  pronounced 
the  monumental  work  upon  which  Freeman's  repu- 
tation will  chiefly  rest. 

While  these  volumes  were  in  course  of  publica- 
tion, there  was  scarcely  a  year  when  its  busy  au- 
thor, from  his  wealth  of  knowledge,  did  not  bring 
out  some  other  book.  Sometimes  it  was  what  men 
count  a  slight  affair,  such  as  a  textbook,  —  albeit 
the  textbook  is  perhaps  the  hardest  kind  of  book 
to  write  well ;  sometimes  it  was  a  brief  monograph 
or  course  of  lectures ;  sometimes  a  collection  of 
earlier  writings.  There  was  an  "  Old  English  His- 
tory for  Children"  (1869),  a  "  Short  History  of  the 


Edward  Augustus  Freeman  275 

Norman  Conquest "  (1880),  and  a  "  General  Sketch 
of  European  History"  (1873).  The  «  Growth  of 
the  English  Constitution  "  was  suggestively  treated 
in  a  small  volume  (1872).  There  was  a  "  History 
of  the  Cathedral  Church  at  Wells"  (1870),  and 
there  was  a  collection  of  "  Historical  and  Architec- 
tural Sketches,"  chiefly  from  Italy  (1876),  followed 
by  "  Sketches  from  the  Subject  and  Neighbour 
Lands  of  Venice "  (1881).  In  these  two  last- 
named  volumes,  illustrated  chiefly  from  the  author's 
own  di-awings,  one  sees  that  his  interest  in  Diocle- 
tian and  Theodoric  was  scarcely  less  keen  than  in 
Alfred  of  Wessex  or  William  the  Norman.  No 
other  modem  traveller  has  done  such  justice  to  Istria 
and  Dalmatia.  "  I  am  not  joking,"  he  writes,  "  when 
I  say  that  the  best  guide  to  those  parts  is  still  the 
account  written  by  the  Emperor  Constantine  Por- 
phyrogenitus  more  than  nine  hundred  years  back. 
But  it  is  surely  high  time  that  there  should  be  an- 
other." Freeman's  accurate  knowledge  of  south- 
eastern Europe  and  its  peoples,  coupled  with  his 
wide  and  comprehensive  study  of  the  contact  be- 
tween Christians  and  Mussulmans  in  all  ages,  led 
him  to  take  very  sound  and  wholesome  views  of  the 
unspeakable  Turk  and  the  everlasting  Eastern  Ques- 
tion ;  and  in  1877,  when  public  attention  was  so 
strongly  directed  toward  the  Balkans,  he  published 


276  A  Century  of  Science 

a  lucid  and  graphic  little  volume  on  "  The  Ottoman 
Power  in  Europe."  This  book  was  a  companion  to 
the  "History  of  the  Saracens,"  above  mentioned, 
and  the  two  together  make  as  good  an  introduction 
to  Mussulman  history  in  its  relations  to  Europe 
as  the  general  reader  is  likely  to  find. 

Among  the  host  of  side  works  which  were  issued 
during  these  years,  two  call  for  especial  mention. 
In  the  lectures  on  "  Comparative  Politics,"  given 
at  the  Royal  Institution  in  1873,  Freeman  ana- 
lyzed and  described  the  different  forms  assumed  by 
Aryan  institutions  among  Greeks,  Romans,  and 
Teutons.  This  book  is  his  most  distinct  attempt  to 
make  his  central  theme  the  career  of  an  institu- 
tion, such  as  kingship  or  representative  assemblies, 
rather  than  the  career  of  a  state  or  a  people.  In  the 
"  History  of  Federal  Government,"  the  two  kinds 
of  treatment,  analytical  and  synthetical,  were  com- 
bined in  a  way  that  would,  I  think,  have  made  that 
his  grandest  work,  had  it  been  completed.  In  the 
lectui'es  we  get  an  able  analysis  and  comparison, 
full  of  fruitful  suggestions,  and  in  our  author's 
happiest  style.  There  is  not  the  originality  of 
scholarship  here  that  we  find  in  Sir  Henry  Maine, 
nor  do  we  find  the  breadth  of  view  that  can  be 
gained  only  when  the  barbaric  non- Aryan  world  is 
taken  into  account.     Such  breadth  was  not  to  be 


Edward  Augustus  Freeman  277 

expected  twenty  years  ago,  and  before  the  path- 
breaking  work  of  the  American  scholar  Lewis 
Morgan.  Freeman's  outlook  was  confined  to  the 
Aryan  domain ;  but  he  did  not  attempt  more  than 
he  knew.  His  task  was  conceived  with  so  clear  a 
consciousness  of  his  limitations,  and  every  point 
was  so  richly  illustrated,  that  the  "  Comparative 
Politics  "  remains  one  of  his  most  useful  and  charm- 
ing books. 

The  other  work  calling  for  especial  mention  is 
"  The  Historical  Geography  of  Europe,"  published 
in  1880.  Its  object  was  "  to  trace  out  the  extent  of 
territory  which  the  different  states  and  nations  of 
Europe  have  held  at  different  times  in  the  world's 
history ;  to  mark  the  different  boundaries  which 
the  same  country  has  had,  and  the  different  mean- 
ings in  which  the  same  name  has  been  used." 
Such  work  is  of  great  and  fundamental  importance, 
because  men  are  perpetually  making  grotesque 
mistakes  through  ignorance  or  forgetfulness  of  the 
changes  which  have  occurred  upon  the  map ;  as,  for 
example,  when  somebody  speaks  of  Lyons  in  the 
tweKth  century  as  a  French  city,  or  supposes  that 
Charles  the  Bold  invaded  Swiss  territory.  His- 
torical writings  fairly  swarm  with  blunders  based 
upon  unconscious  errors  of  this  sort,  and  nowhere 
did  Freeman  do  better  service  than   in  pointing 


278  A  Century  of  Science 

them  out  on  every  possible  occasion.  No  writer 
has  so  effectively  warned  the  historical  student 
against  that  besetting  sin  of  "  bondage  to  the 
modern  map."  His  exposition  of  historical  geo- 
graphy is  a  book  of  purest  gold,  and  no  serious 
student  of  history  can  safely  neglect  it. 

In  1881  Mr.  Freeman  visited  the  United  States, 
and  gave  lectures  on  "  The  English  People  in  its 
Three  Homes "  and  "  The  Practical  Bearings  of 
European  History,"  which  were  afterward  published 
in  a  volume.  After  returning  home  he  published 
"  Some  Impressions  of  the  United  States  "  (1883), 
a  very  entertaining  book  because  of  the  author's 
ingrained  habit  of  comparing  and  discriminating 
social  phenomena  upon  so  wide  a  scale.  Gauls  and 
Illjrrians,  Wessex  and  Achaia,  come  in  to  point 
each  a  moral,  and  show  how  to  this  great  historian 
the  whole  European  past  was  almost  as  much  a 
present  and  living  reality  as  the  incidents  occurring 
before  his  eyes. 

In  the  same  year,  1883,  Freeman  published 
his  "English  Towns  and  Districts,"  a  series  of 
addresses  and  sketches  in  which  he  had  from  time 
to  time  embodied  the  results  of  his  antiquarian  and 
architectural  studies  in  many  parts  of  England  and 
Wales.  It  is  a  book  of  rare  fascination  as  illus- 
trating how  largely  national  history  is  made  up  of 


Edward  Augustus  Freeman  279 

local  history,  and  how  it  is  impossible  to  understand 
the  former  correctly  without  paying  much  attention 
to  the  latter.  In  further  illustration  of  the  same 
point,  Freeman  projected  the  well-known  series 
of  monographs  on  "  Historic  Towns,"  to  which 
he  himself  contributed  the  opening  volume,  on 
"  Exeter  "  (1886). 

Having  been  called  to  the  Regius  Professorship 
at  Oxford  in  1884,  Freeman's  next  publications 
were  university  lectures  on  "  Methods  of  Historical 
Study,"  "  The  Chief  Periods  of  European  History," 
"  Fifty  Years  of  European  History,"  "  Teutonic 
Conquest  in  Gaul  and  Britain,"  "  Greater  Greece 
and  Greater  Britain,"  and  "  George  Washington  the 
Expander  of  England"  (1886-88).  Meanwhile, 
the  colossal  work  on  "  Sicily  "  was  rapidly  assuming 
its  final  shape.  This  topic  obviously  touched  upon 
Freeman's  other  two  chief  topics  at  two  points. 
Ancient  Sicily  was  part  of  that  Greek  world  which 
he  had  so  thoroughly  studied  in  connection  with  the 
beginnings  of  federal  government.  Mediaeval  Si- 
cily was  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  Norman's 
fields  of  activity.  But  the  thought  of  writing  the 
history  of  that  fateful  island  did  not  come  to  Free- 
man as  an  afterthought  suggested  by  his  other  two 
great  works.  On  the  contrary,  the  conception  of 
the  historic  position  of  Sicily  was  among  the  first 


280  A  Century  of  Science 

that  stimulated  his  philosophic  mind  to  imdertake 
comprehensive  studies.  The  contact  between  the 
Aryan  and  Semitic  civilizations  along  the  coasts  of 
the  Mediterranean  is  surely  the  most  interesting 
topic  in  the  history  of  mankind,  as  the  reader  will  at 
once  admit  when  he  reflects  that  it  involves  the  ori- 
gin and  rise  of  Christianity.  But,  restricting  our- 
selves to  the  political  aspects  of  the  subject,  how  full 
of  dramatic  grandeur  it  is  !  How  stirring  were  the 
scenes  of  which  Sicily  has  been  the  theatre  !  There 
struggled  Carthage,  first  against  Greek,  and  then 
against  Roman  ;  and  in  later  times  the  conflict  was 
renewed  between  Arabic-speaking  Mussulmans  and 
Greek-speaking  Christians,  until  the  Norman  came 
to  assert  his  sway  over  both,  and  to  loosen  the 
clutch  of  the  Saracen  upon  the  centre  of  the  Medi- 
terranean world.  The  theme,  in  its  manifold  bear- 
ings, was  worthy  of  Freeman,  and  he  was  worthy 
of  it.  His  design  was  to  start  with  the  earliest 
times  in  which  Sicily  is  known  to  history,  and  to 
carry  on  the  narrative  as  far  as  the  death  of  the 
Emperor  Frederick  II.  and  the  final  overthrow  of 
the  Hohenstauf  en  dynasty.  The  scheme  lay  ripen- 
ing in  his  mind  for  nearly  half  a  century,  and  its 
consummation  was  begun  with  characteristic  swift- 
ness and  vigour.  Two  noble  volumes  were  pub- 
lished in  1891,  and  the  third  was  out  of  the  author's 


Edward  Augustus  Freeman  281 

hands  by  the  end  of  last  January.  But  for  a 
death  most  lamentably  sudden  and  premature 
there  was  no  reason  why  the  whole  task  should 
not  have  been  soon  accomplished.  The  author 
seems  to  have  fallen  a  victim  to  his  superabundant 
zeal  and  energy.  He  had  always  been  a  traveller, 
visiting  in  person  the  scenes  of  his  narratives,  nar- 
rowly scrutinizing  each  locality  with  the  eye  of  an 
antiquarian,  exploring  battlefields  and  making  draw- 
ings of  churches  and  castles,  running  from  one  end 
of  Europe  to  the  other  to  verify  some  mooted  point. 
It  was,  I  believe,  on  some  such  expedition  as  this 
that  he  fomid  himself,  last  March,  at  Alicante, 
where  an  attack  of  smallpox  suddenly  ended  his 
life. 

To  the  faithful  students  of  his  works  the  tidings 
of  Freeman's  death  must  have  come  like  the  news 
of  the  loss  of  a  personal  friend.  To  those  who 
enjoyed  his  friendship  even  in  a  slight  way  the 
sense  of  loss  was  keen,  for  he  was  a  very  lovable 
man.  Some  people,  indeed,  seem  to  think  of  him 
as  a  gruff  and  growling  pedant,  ever  on  the  look- 
out for  some  culprit  to  chastise ;  but,  while  not 
without  some  basis,  this  notion  is  far  from  the 
truth.  Freeman's  conception  of  the  duty  of  a 
historian  was  a  high  one,  and  he  lived  up  to  it. 
He  had  a  holy  horror  of  slovenly  and  inaccurate 


282  A  Century  of  Science 

work  ;  pretentious  sciolism  was  something  that  he 
could  not  endure,  and  he  knew  how  easy  it  is  to 
press  garbled  or  misunderstood  history  into  the 
service  of  corrupt  politics.  He  found  the  minds 
of  English-speaking  contemporaries  full  of  queer 
notions  of  European  history,  especially  as  to  the 
Middle  Ages,  —  notions  usually  misty  and  often 
grotesquely  wrong ;  and  he  did  more  than  any  other 
Englishman  of  our  time  to  correct  such  errors  and 
clear  up  men's  minds.  Such  work  could  not  be 
done  without  attacking  blunders  and  the  propaga- 
tors of  blunders.  Freeman's  assaults  were  not  in- 
frequent, and  they  were  apt  to  be  crushing ;  but 
they  were  made  in  the  interests  of  historic  truth, 
and  there  were  none  too  many  of  them.  Like 
"  Mr.  F.'s  Aunt,"  the  great  historian  did  "  hate  a 
fool ;  "  and  it  is  clearly  right  that  fools  should  be 
silenced  and  made  to  know  their  place. 

Not  only  foolishness  and  inaccuracy  did  Free- 
man hate,  but  also  tyranny,  fraud,  and  social 
injustice,  under  whatever  specious  disguises  they 
might  be  veiled.  In  matters  of  right  and  wrong 
his  perceptions  were  rarely  clouded.  He  never 
could  be  duped  into  admiring  a  charlatan  like  the 
late  Emperor  of  the  French.  Upon  the  Eastern 
Question  he  wielded  a  Varangian  axe,  and  had  his 
advice  been  heeded,  the  Commander  of  the  Faith- 


Edward  Augustus  Freeman  283 

ful  would  ere  now  have  been  sent  back  to  Brusa, 
or  beyond.  But  while  in  politics  and  in  criticism 
he  could  hit  hard,  his  disposition  was  as  tender  and 
humane  as  Uncle  Toby's.  Eminently  character- 
istic is  the  discussion  on  fox-hunting  which  he  car- 
ried on  with  Anthony  Trollope  some  years  ago  in 
the  "  Fortnightly  Review,"  in  which  he  condemned 
that  time-honoured  sport  as  intolerably  cruel. 

Mr.  Freeman  was  very  domestic  in  his  habits. 
When  not  travelling,  he  was  to  be  found  in  his 
country  home,  writing  in  his  own  library.  When 
he  was  in  the  United  States,  it  amused  him  to  see 
people's  surprise  when  told  that  he  did  not  live  in 
a  city,  and  did  not  spend  his  time  deciphering 
musty  manuscripts  in  public  libraries  or  archives. 
He  used  to  say  that,  even  in  point  of  economy,  he 
thought  it  better  to  dwell  among  pleasant  green 
fields  and  to  consult  one's  own  books  than  to  take 
long  journeys  or  be  stifled  in  dirty  cities  in  order 
to  consult  other  people's  books.  His  chief  subjects 
of  study  favoured  such  a  policy,  for  most  of  the 
sources  of  information  on  the  eleventh  century, 
as  well  as  upon  ancient  Greece,  are  contained  in 
printed  volumes.  Now  and  then  he  missed  some 
little  point  upon  which  a  manuscript  might  have 
helped  him.  But  one  cannot  help  wishing  he 
might  have  stayed  among  the  quiet  fields  of  Somer- 


284  A  Century  of  Science 

set   instead   of  taking   that  last  fatal  journey  to 
Alicante. 

It  was  chiefly  with  the  political  aspects  of  history 
that  Freeman  concerned  himself ;  not  in  the  old- 
fashioned  way,  as  a  mere  narrative  of  the  deeds  of 
kings  and  cabinets,  but  in  scientific  fashion,  as  an 
application  of  the  comparative  method  to  the  vari- 
ous processes  of  nation-building.  I  do  not  mean  that 
his  narrative  was  subordinated  to  scientific  exposi- 
tion, but  that  it  was  informed  and  vitalized  by  the 
spirit  and  methods  of  science.  In  pure  description 
Freeman  was  often  excellent ;  his  account  of  the 
death  of  William  Rufus,  for  example,  is  a  master- 
piece of  impressive  narrative.  In  description  and 
in  argument  alike  Freeman  usually  confined  his  at- 
tention to  political  history,  except  when  he  dealt  in 
his  suggestive  way  with  architecture  and  archaeo- 
logy. To  art  in  general,  to  the  history  of  philo- 
sophy and  of  scientific  ideas,  to  the  development 
of  literary  expression,  of  manners  and  customs,  of 
trade  and  the  industrial  arts,  he  devoted  much 
less  thought.  I  believe  he  did  not  fuUy  approve 
of  his  friend  Green's  method  of  carrying  along 
political,  social,  and  literary  topics  abreast  in  his 
"  History  of  the  English  People."  Few  wiU  doubt, 
however,  that  in  this  respect  Green's  artistic  grasp 
upon  his  subject  was  stronger  than  Freeman's. 


Edward  Augustus  Freeman  285 

It  is  some  slight  consolation  for  our  bitter  loss 
to  know  that  many  of  the  great  historian's  books 
were  in  large  part  written  long  before  he  felt  the 
time  to  be  ripe  for  completing  and  publishing 
them.  Some  of  the  unfinished  portions  may  be 
brought  toward  completeness  and  edited  by  other 
hands.  In  this  way  I  hope  we  may  look  for  one 
or  two  more  volumes  of  the  "  Sicily,"  and  perhaps 
for  the  second  volume  of  the  "  Federal  Government," 
dealing  with  the  Swiss  and  other  German  federa- 
tions. Probably  no  other  Englishman,  and  few 
other  men  anywhere  in  our  time,  knew  anything 
like  so  much  as  Freeman  about  the  history  of 
Switzerland.  I  once  or  twice  begged  him  to  make 
haste  and  finish  that  volume,  but  desisted ;  for  it 
was  evident  that  "  Sicily  "  was  absorbing  him,  and 
an  author  does  not  like  to  be  pestered  with  advice 
to  turn  aside  from  the  work  that  is  uppermost  in 
his  mind. 
November,  1892. 


CAMBRIDGE  AS  VILLAGE  AND  CITY^ 

We  have  met  together  this  evening  on  one  of 
those  occasions,  which  keep  recurring,  for  commu- 
nities as  well  as  for  individuals,  when  it  is  desira- 
ble to  take  a  retrospect  of  the  past,  to  call  atten- 
tion to  some  of  the  characteristic  incidents  in  our 
history,  to  sum  up  the  work  we  have  done  and 
estimate  the  position  we  occupy  in  the  world.  As 
long  as  we  retain  the  decimal  numeration  that  is 
natural  to  ten-fingered  creatures,  we  shall  encoun- 
ter such  moments  at  intervals  of  half  centuries  and 
centuries,  and  happy  are  the  communities  that  can 
meet  them  without  shameful  memories  that  shun 
the  light  of  history ;  happy  are  the  people  that  can 
look  back  upon  the  work  of  their  fathers  and  in 
their  heart  of  hearts  pronounce  it  good  !  What  a 
blot  it  was  upon  the  civic  fame  of  every  Greek 
community   that    took    part   in   putting   out   the 

1  An  oration  delivered  in  Sanders  Theatre,  June  2,  1896,  at 
the  civic  jubilee  commemorating  the  incorporation  of  Cambridge 
as  a  city. 


Camhridge  as  Village  and  City         287 

brightest  light  of  Hellas  in  the  wicked  Pelopon- 
nesian  War!  Can  any  right-minded  Venetian 
look  without  blushing  at  the  bronze  horses  that  sur- 
mount the  stately  portal  of  St.  Mark's  ?  —  a  per- 
petual memento  of  that  black  day  when  ravening 
commercial  jealousy  decoyed  an  army  of  Crusaders 
to  the  despoihng  of  the  chief  city  of  Christendom, 
and  thus  broke  away  the  strongest  barrier  in  the 
path  of  the  advancing  Turk !  What  must  the 
citizen  of  Paris  think  to-day  of  cowardly  massacres 
of  unresisting  prisoners,  such  as  happened  in  1418 
and  in  1792  ?  Is  there  any  dweller  in  Birmingham 
who  would  not  gladly  expunge  from  the  past  that 
summer  evening  which  witnessed  the  burning  of 
the  house  and  library  of  Dr.  Priestley?  From 
such  melancholy  scenes,  and  from  complicity  in 
political  crime,  our  community,  our  neighbourhood, 
has  been  notably  free.  The  annals  of  Massachu- 
setts, during  its  existence  of  nearly  three  centuries, 
are  written  in  a  light  that  is  sometimes  dull  or 
sombre,  but  very  seldom  lurid.  In  particular  the 
career  of  Cambridge  has  been  a  placid  one.  We 
do  not  find  in  it  many  things  to  startle  us ;  but 
there  is  much  that  we  can  approve,  much  upon 
which,  without  falling  into  the  seK-satisfied  mood 
that  is  the  surest  index  of  narrowness  and  pro- 
vincialism, we  may   legitimately   pride  ourselves. 


288  A  Century  of  Science 

In  commemorating  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
incorporation  of  Cambridge  as  a  city,  a  retrospect 
of  the  half  century  is  needful ;  but  we  shaU  find 
it  pleasant  to  go  farther  back,  and  start  with  a 
glimpse  of  the  beginnings  of  our  town. 

I  came  near  saying  "humble  beginnings  ;  "  it  is 
a  stock  phrase,  and  perhaps  savours  of  tautology, 
since  beginnings  are  apt  to  be  humble  as  compared 
with  long-matured  results.  But  an  adjective  which 
better  suits  the  beginnings  of  our  Cambridge  is 
"  dignified."  Circumstances  of  dignity  attended 
the  selection  of  this  spot  upon  the  bank  of  Charles 
River  as  the  site  of  a  town,  and  there  was  some- 
thing peculiarly  dignified  in  the  circumstances  of 
the  change  of  vocation  which  determined  the 
change  in  its  name.  The  story  is  a  very  different 
one  from  that  of  the  founding  of  towns  in  the  Old 
World,  in  the  semi-barbarous  times  when  the  art  of 
nation-making  was  in  its  infancy.  In  those  earlier 
ages,  it  was  only  through  prolonged  warfare  against 
enemies  nearly  equal  in  prowess  and  resources 
that  a  free  political  life  could  be  maintained ;  and 
it  was  only  after  numberless  crude  experiments 
that  nations  could  be  formed  in  which  political 
rights  could  be  efficiently  preserved  for  the  people. 
All  the  training  that  such  long  ages  of  turbulence 
could  impart  had  been  gained  by  our  forefathers 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         289 

in  the  Old  World.  To  the  founders  of  our  Cam- 
bridge it  had  come  as  a  rich  inheritance.  They 
were  not  as  the  rough  followers  of  Alaric  or  Hen- 
gist.  They  had  profited  by  the  work  of  Roman 
civilization,  with  its  vast  and  subtle  nexus  of  legal 
and  political  ideas.  In  the  hands  of  their  fathers 
had  been  woven  the  wonderful  fabric  of  English 
law ;  they  were  familiar  with  parliamentary  insti- 
tutions ;  they  had  been  brought  up  in  a  country 
where  the  king's  peace  was  better  preserved  than 
anywhere  else  in  Europe,  and  where  at  the  same 
time  self-government  was  maintained  in  full  vigour. 
They  had  profited,  moreover,  by  the  scholastic 
learning  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  Greek  schol- 
arship of  the  Renaissance ;  nor  was  the  newly 
awakening  spirit  of  scientific  inquiry,  visible  in 
Galileo  and  Gilbert,  lost  upon  their  keen  and  in- 
quisitive minds.  These  Puritans,  heirs  to  what 
was  strongest  and  best  in  the  world's  culture,  came 
to  Massachusetts  Bay  in  order  to  put  into  practice 
a  theory  of  civil  government  in  which  the  interests 
both  of  liberty  and  of  godliness  seemed  to  them 
likely  to  be  best  subserved.  They  came  to  plant 
the  most  advanced  civilization  in  the  midst  of 
a  heathen  wilderness,  and  thus  the  selection  of  a 
seat  of  government  for  the  new  commonwealth  was 
an  affair  of  dignity  and  importance. 


290  A  Century  of  Science 

Half  a  dozen  towns,  including  Boston,  had  al- 
ready been  begun,  when  it  was  decided  that  a  site 
upon  the  bank  of  Charles  River,  three  or  four 
miles  inland,  would  be  most  favourable  for  the  cap- 
ital of  the  Puritan  colony.  It  would  be  somewhat 
more  defensible  against  a  fleet  than  the  peninsulas 
of  Boston  and  Charlestown.  The  warships  to  be 
dreaded  at  that  moment  were  not  so  much  those  of 
any  foreign  power  as  those  of  King  Charles  him- 
self;  for  none  could  tell  that  the  grim  clouds  of 
civil  war  then  lowering  upon  the  horizon  of  Eng- 
land and  Scotland  might  not  also  darken  the  coast 
of  Massachusetts  Bay.  When  the  site  was  selected, 
on  the  28th  of  December,  1630,  it  was  agreed  that 
the  governor,  deputy  governor,  and  all  the  Court 
of  Assistants  (except  Endicott,  already  settled  at 
Salem)  should  build  their  houses  here.  Fortu- 
nately no  name  was  bestowed  upon  the  new  town. 
It  was  known  simply  as  the  New  Town,  and  here 
in  the  years  before  1638  the  General  Court  was 
several  times  assembled.  During  those  seven 
years  the  number  of  Puritans  in  New  England  in- 
creased from  about  1500  to  nearly  20,000.  It 
was  also  clear  that  the  King's  troubles  at  home 
were  likely  to  keep  him  from  molesting  Massachu- 
setts. With  the  increased  feeling  of  security,  Bos- 
ton came  to  be  preferred  as  the  seat  of  government, 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City        291 

and  only  two  of  its  members  ever  fulfilled  the 
agreement  to  build  their  houses  in  the  New  Town. 
The  building  of  the  New  Town,  however,  fur- 
nished the  occasion  for  determining  at  the  outset 
what  kind  of  government  the  Puritan  common- 
wealth should  have.  It  was  to  be  a  walled  town, 
for  defence  against  frontier  barbarism  of  the  New 
World  type ;  not  the  formidable  destructive  power 
of  an  Attila  or  a  Bayazet,  but  the  feeble  barbarism 
of  the  red  men  and  the  Stone  Age,  so  that  a  wall 
of  masonry  was  not  required,  but  a  wooden  palisade 
would  do.  In  1632  the  Court  of  Assistants  im- 
posed a  tax  of  X60  for  the  purpose  of  building  this 
palisade ;  but  the  men  of  Watertown  refused  to 
pay  their  share,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  not 
represented  in  the  taxing  body.  The  ensuing  dis- 
cussion resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a  House  of 
Deputies,  in  which  every  town  was  represented. 
Henceforth  the  Court  of  Assistants  together  with 
the  House  of  Deputies  formed  the  General  Court. 
There  was  no  authority  for  such  a  representative 
body  in  the  charter,  which  vested  the  government 
in  the  Court  of  Assistants  ;  but,  as  Hutchinson 
tells  us,  the  people  assumed  that  the  right  to  such 
representation  was  implied  in  that  clause  of  the 
charter  which  reserved  to  them  the  natural  rights 
of  Englishmen.     Thus  the  building  of  a  wooden 


292  A  Century  of  Science 

palisade  from  Ash  Street  to  Jarvis  Field  fur- 
nished the  occasion  for  the  first  distinct  assertion 
in  the  New  World  of  the  principles  that  were  to 
bear  fruit  in  the  independence  of  the  United 
States. 

But  the  most  interesting  event  in  the  history  of 
the  New  Town  before  it  became  Cambridge  was 
the  brief  sojourn  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  and 
his  company,  from  Braintree  in  England.  In  pop- 
ular generalizations  it  is  customary  to  allude  to 
our  Puritan  forefathers  as  if  they  were  all  ahke 
in  their  ways  of  thinking,  whereas  in  reality  it 
would  be  difficult  to  point  out  any  group  of  men 
and  women  among  whom  individualism  has  more 
strongly  flourished.  Among  the  numberless  differ- 
ences of  opinion  and  policy,  it  was  only  a  few  — 
and  mostly  such  as  were  related  to  vital  political 
questions  —  that  blazed  up  in  acts  of  persecution. 
For  the  disorganization  wrought  by  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son swift  banishment  seemed  the  only  available 
remedy ;  but  slighter  differences  could  be  healed 
by  a  peaceful  secession,  which  some  people  depre- 
cated as  the  "  removal  of  a  candlestick."  Such 
a  secession  was  that  of  Hooker  and  his  friends. 
The  difference  between  Hooker's  ideal  of  govern- 
ment and  Winthrop's  has  come  to  be  recognized 
as  in  some   measure  foreshadowing  the   different 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City        293 

conceptions  of  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  in  later 
days.  But  of  controversy  between  the  two  eminent 
Puritans  only  slight  traces  are  left.  One  act  of 
omission  on  the  part  of  the  friendly  seceders  is 
more  forcible  than  reams  of  argument :  the  found- 
ers of  Connecticut  did  not  see  fit  to  limit  the  suf- 
frage by  the  qualification  of  church  membership. 

The  removal  of  so  many  people  to  the  banks  of 
the  Connecticut  left  in  the  New  Town  only  eleven 
families  of  those  who  had  settled  here  before  1635. 
But  depopulation  was  prevented  by  the  arrival  of 
a  new  congregation  from  England.  There  stands 
on  our  common  a  monument  in  commemoration  of 
«Tohn  Bridge,  who  was  for  many  years  a  selectman 
of  Cambridge,  and  dwelt  beyond  the  western  limits 
of  the  town,  on  or  near  the  site  since  famous  as 
the  headquarters  of  Washington  and  the  home  of 
Longfellow.  This  John  Bridge,  deacon  of  the 
First  Church,  was  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  of 
the  New  Town,  and  one  of  the  eleven  householders 
that  stayed  behind,  a  connecting  link  between  the 
old  congregation  of  Thomas  Hooker  and  the  new 
congregation  of  Thomas  Shepard.  The  coming 
of  this  eminent  divine  was  undoubtedly  an  event 
of  cardinal  importance  in  the  history  of  our  com- 
munity, for  in  the  Hutchinson  controversy,  which 
shook  the  little  colony  to  its  foundations,  his  zeal 


294  A  Century  of  Science 

and  vigilance  in  exposing  heresy  were  conspicu- 
ously shown ;  and,  if  we  may  believe  Cotton 
Mather,  it  was  this  circumstance  that  ,led  to  the 
selection  of  the  New  Town  as  the  site  for  the  pro- 
jected college.  It  was  well  for  students  of  divinity 
to  sit  under  the  preaching  of  such  a  man,  and  of 
such  as  he  might  train  up  to  succeed  him.  How 
vain  were  all  such  hopes  of  keeping  this  New 
English  Canaan  free  from  heresy  was  shown  when 
Henry  Dunster,  first  president  of  the  college,  was 
censured  by  the  magistrates  and  dismissed  from 
ojSice  for  disapproving  of  infant  baptism ! 

In  the  great  English  universities  at  that  time 
Eoyalism  and  Episcopacy  prevailed  at  Oxford, 
while  Puritanism  more  or  less  allied  with  Repub- 
licanism was  rife  at  Cambridge.  Ever  since  the 
fourteenth  century  a  superior  flexibility  in  opin- 
ion had  been  observable  in  the  eastern  counties, 
whence  came  so  many  of  the  people  that  founded 
New  England.  Not  only  Hooker  and  Shepard, 
but  most  of  our  clergy,  among  whom  individualism 
was  so  rife,  were  graduates  of  Cambridge.  When 
it  was  decided  that  the  New  Town  was  to  be  the 
home  of  our  college,  it  was  natural  for  people  to 
fall  into  the  habit  of  calling  it  Cambridge;  and 
this  name,  so  long  enshrined  already  in  their  affec- 
tions, already   made    illustrious  by  Erasmus  and 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         295 

Fisher,  by  Latimer  and  Cramner,  by  Burghley 
and  Walsingham  and  the  two  Bacons,  by  Edmund 
Spenser  and  Ben  Jonson,  —  this  name  of  such 
fame  and  dignity  was  adopted  in  1638  by  an  order 
of  the  General  Court.  The  map  of  the  United 
States  abounds  in  town  names  taken  at  random 
from  the  Old  World,  often  inappropriate  and  some- 
times ludicrous  from  the  incongruity  of  associa- 
tions. The  name  of  our  city  is  connected  by  a 
legitimate  bond  of  inheritance  with  that  of  the 
beautiful  city  on  the  Cam.  It  was  given  in  the 
thought  that  the  work  for  scholarship,  for  godli- 
ness, and  for  freedom,  which  had  so  long  been  car- 
ried on  in  the  older  city,  was  to  be  continued  in 
the  younger.  The  name  thus  given  was  a  pledge 
to  posterity,  and  it  has  been  worthily  fulfilled. 

Into  the  history  of  the  town  of  Cambridge  dur- 
ing the  two  centuries  after  it  received  its  name  I 
do  not  propose  to  enter.  But  a  glimpse  of  its  gen- 
eral appearance  during  the  greater  part  of  that 
period  is  needful,  in  order  to  give  precision  and 
the  right  sort  of  emphasis  to  the  contrast  which  we 
see  before  us  to-day.  The  Cambridge  of  those 
days  was  simply  the  seat  of  the  college,  not  yet  de- 
veloped into  a  university.  Within  the  memory  of 
persons  now  living,  Old  Cambridge  was  commonly 
alluded  to  as  "  the  village."     In  the  original  laying 


296  A  Century  of  Science 

out  of  the  township  we  seem  to  see  a  reminiscence 
of  the  ancient  threefold  partition  into  town  mark, 
arable  mark,  and  common.  The  "  east  gate,"  near 
the  comer  of  Harvard  and  Linden  streets,  and  the 
"west  gate,"  at  the  corner  of  Ash  and  Brattle, 
marked  the  limits  of  the  town  in  those  directions. 
The  town  was  at  first  comprised  between  Harvard 
Street  and  the  marshes  which  cut  off  approach 
to  the  river  bank.  Afterward,  the  "  West  End," 
from  Harvard  Square  to  Sparks  Street,  was  grad- 
ually covered  with  homesteads.  The  common  be- 
gan, as  now,  hard  by  God's  Acre,  the  venerable 
burying  ground,  and  afforded  pasturage  for  the 
village  cattle  as  far  as  Linnaean  Street.  The  re- 
gions now  occupied  by  Cambridgeport  and  East 
Cambridge  contained  the  arable  district  with  many 
farms,  small  and  large,  but  everywhere  salt 
marshes  bordered  the  river,  and  much  of  the  coun- 
try was  a  wild  woodland.  The  tale  of  wolves  killed 
in  Cambridge  for  the  year  1696  was  seventy-six, 
and  a  bear  was  seen  roaming  as  late  as  1754.  It 
was  a  rough  country  which  the  British  first  encoun- 
tered when  they  landed  at  Lechmere  Point  in  1775, 
on  their  night  march  to  Lexington.  Cambridge 
then  turned  its  back  toward  Boston,  to  which  the 
only  approach  was  by  a  causeway  and  bridge  at 
what  we  now  call  Boylston  Street,  and  by  this  route 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         297 

tlie  distance  was  eight  miles,  as  we  still  read  upon 
the  ancient  milestone  in  God's  Acre.  To  complete 
our  outline  of  the  village,  we  must  recall  the  prin- 
cipal public  buildings.  The  meetinghouse,  a  little 
south  of  the  site  of  Dane  Hall,  was  used  both  as 
church  and  as  townhouse  until  1708,  when  a  build- 
ing was  erected  in  the  middle  of  Harvard  Square 
to  serve  for  town  meetings  and  courts.  A  little 
eastward,  near  the  "  east  gate,"  stood  the  parson- 
age. The  schoolhouse  was  behind  the  site  of  Hol- 
yoke  House.  The  jail  stood  on  the  west  side  of 
Winthrop  Square,  which  was  then  an  open  market. 
Between  this  market  and  Harvard  Square,  b).  the 
sanded  parlour  of  the  Blue  Anchor  Tavern,  the 
selectmen  held  their  meetings  ;  and  on  the  corner 
of  the  street  which  still  bears  the  name  of  Har- 
vard's first  president  was  something  rarely  to  be 
seen  in  so  small  a  village,  the  printing  press  now 
known  as  the  University  Press,  established  in 
1639,  —  the  only  one  in  English  America  until 
Boston  followed  the  example  in  1676. 

Until  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  these 
outlines  of  Cambridge  remained  with  but  little 
change,  save  for  the  building  of  noble  houses  on 
spacious  estates  toward  Mount  Auburn  in  one  di- 
rection, and  upon  Dana  Hill  in  the  other.  The  oc- 
cupants of  many  of  these  estates  were  members  of 


298  A  Century  of  Science 

the  Church  of  England,  and  the  building  of  Christ 
Church  in  1759  was  one  marked  symptom  of  the 
change  that  was  creeping  over  the  little  Puritan 
community.  It  was  a  change  toward  somewhat 
wider  views  of  hfe,  and  toward  the  softening  of 
old  animosities.  In  contrast  with  the  age  in  which 
we  live  the  whole  eighteenth  century  in  New  Eng- 
land seems  a  slow  and  quiet  time,  when  the  public 
pulse  beat  more  languidly,  or  at  any  rate  less  fe- 
verishly, than  now.  The  people  of  New  England 
led  a  comparatively  isolated  life. 

Thought  in  our  college  town  did  not  keep  pace 
with  European  centres  of  thought,  as  it  does  in  our 
day.  There  was  less  hospitality  toward  foreign 
ideas.  Few  people  visited  Europe.  Life  in  New 
England  was  thrown  upon  its  own  resources,  and 
this  was  in  great  measure  true  of  Cambridge  in  the 
days  when  it  was  eight  miles  from  Boston,  and  in- 
definitely remote  from  the  mother  country.  One 
of  the  surest  results  of  social  isolation  is  the  ac- 
quirement of  peculiarities  of  speech,  often  shown 
in  the  retaining  of  archaisms  which  fashionable 
language  has  dropped.  That  quaint  Yankee  dia- 
lect, of  which  Hosea  Biglow  says  that, 

"  For  puttin'  in  a  downright  lick 

'Twixt  Humbug-'s  eyes,  ther  's  few  can  metch  it, 
An'  then  it  helves  my  thoughts  ez  slick 

Ez  stret-grained  hickory  doos  a  hetchet,"  — 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         299 

that  dialect  so  sweet  to  the  ears  of  every  true  child 
of  New  England  may  still  be  heard,  if  we  go  to 
seek  it ;  but  in  Lowell's  boyhood  it  must  have  been 
a  familiar  sound  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Elmwood. 
But  the  work  done  in  this  rustic  college  com- 
munity, if  done  within  somewhat  narrow  horizons, 
was  eminently  a  widening  and  liberalizing  work. 
The  seeds  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  germinat- 
ing in  the  eighteenth.  Two  or  three  indications 
must  suffice,  out  of  many  that  might  be  cited.  In 
1669  there  was  a  schism  in  the  First  Parish  of 
Boston,  brought  about  by  an  attempt  to  revise  the 
conditions  of  church  membership,  in  order  to  obvi- 
ate some  of  the  difficulties  arising  from  the  restric- 
tion of  the  suffrage  to  church  members,  and  the 
founding  of  the  Old  South  Church  by  the  more 
liberal  party  was  a  result  of  this  schism.  One 
hundred  and  sixty  years  later,  in  1829,  there  was 
a  schism  in  the  First  Parish  of  Cambridge,  which 
resulted  in  the  founding  of  the  Shepard  Church 
by  the  more  conservative  party.  The  questions  at 
issue  between  the  two  parties  were  the  questions 
that  divide  Unitarian  theology  from  Trinitarian, 
and  the  distance  between  the  kind  of  interests  at 
stake  in  the  earlier  controversy  and  in  the  later 
may  serve  as  a  fair  measure  of  the  progress  which 
the  mind  of  Massachusetts  had  been  making  during 


300  A  Century  of  Science 

that  interval  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  years.  In  all 
that  time,  the  chief  training  school  for  the  minis- 
ters by  whom  the  speculative  minds  of  Massachu- 
setts were  stimulated  and  guided  was  Harvard  Col- 
lege. But  it  was  here,  too,  that  men  eminent  in 
civic  life  were  trained ;  and  among  the  various 
illustrations  of  the  type  thus  nurtured  may  be  cited 
Samuel  Adams  and  Thomas  Hutchinson,  foemen 
worthy  of  one  another,  Warren  and  Hancock,  Jon- 
athan Trumbull  and  John  Adams.  So  far  as  New 
England  was  concerned,  the  chief  work  in  bringing 
on  the  Eevolution  was  done  by  graduates  of  Har- 
vard. In  the  convention  which  framed  our  Fed- 
eral Constitution,  three  important  delegates  were 
the  Harvard  men,  Gerry,  Strong,  and  King ;  and 
in  this  connection  we  cannot  fail  to  recall  names 
so  closely  associated  with  our  national  beginnings 
as  Timothy  Pickering  and  Fisher  Ames,  nor  can 
we  omit  the  noble  line  of  jurists  from  Parsons  to 
Story,  and  so  on  to  Curtis,  whom  so  many  of  us 
well  remember ;  or,  going  back  to  that  Massachu- 
setts convention,  of  which  the  work  is  commemo- 
rated in  the  name  of  Federal  Street,  we  may  single 
out  for  mention  the  great  minister  and  statesman, 
type  of  what  is  best  in  Puritanism,  Samuel  West, 
of  New  Bedford.  Such  names  speak  for  the  kind 
of  quiet,  unobtrusive  work  that  was  going  on  in 


Camhridge  as  Village  and  City         301 

Cambridge  during  those  two  centuries  of  rural  ex- 
istence. Such  strengthening  and  unfolding  of  the 
spirit  is  the  only  work  that  is  truly  immortal.  In 
a  town  like  ours  the  material  rehcs  of  the  past  are 
inspiring,  and  it  is  right  that  we  should  do  our  best 
to  preserve  them ;  but  they  are  perishable.  The 
gambrel-roofed  house  from  the  door  of  which  Pre- 
sident Langdon  asked  God's  blessing  upon  the  men 
that  were  starting  for  Bunker  Hill,  in  later  days 
the  birthplace  and  homestead  of  our  beloved  Auto- 
crat, has  vanished  from  the  scene  ;  the  venerable 
elm  under  which  Washington  drew  the  sword  in 
defence  of  American  liberty  is  slowly  dying,  year 
by  year.  But  for  the  spiritual  achievement  that 
has  marked  the  career  of  our  community  there  is 
no  death,  and  they  that  have  turned  many  to  right- 
eousness shall  shine  in  our  firmament  as  the  stars 
forever  and  ever.  ^ 

In  contrasting  the  Cambridge  of  the  nineteenth 
with  that  of  the  two  preceding  centuries,  the  first 
fact  which  strikes  our  attention  is  the  increase  in 
the  rate  of  growth.  In  1680  the  population  of 
Cambridge  seems  to  have  been  about  850,  and  the 
graduating  class  for  that  year  numbered  five.  In 
1793  the  population — not  counting  the  parishes 
that  have  since  become  Brighton  and  Arlington  — 
was  about  1200,  and  there  was  a  graduating  class 


302  A  Century  of  Science 

of  38.  Thus  in  more  than  a  century  the  popula- 
tion had  increased  barely  fifty  per  cent.  In  1793 
there  were  only  four  houses  east  of  Dana  Street, 
but  that  year  witnessed  an  event  of  cardinal  impor- 
tance, the  opening  of  West  Boston  Bridge.  The 
distance  between  Boston  and  Old  Cambridge  was 
thus  reduced  from  eight  miles  to  three,  and  a  di- 
rect avenue  was  opened  between  the  interior  of 
Middlesex  County  and  the  Boston  markets.  The 
effect  was  shown  in  doubling  the  population  of 
Cambridge  by  the  year  1809,  when  another  bridge 
was  completed  from  Lechmere  Point  to  the  north 
end  of  Boston.  These  were  toll  bridges,  in  the 
hands  of  private  corporations,  and  their  success  led 
to  further  bridges,  —  the  one  at  River  Street  in 
1811,  the  one  at  Western  Avenue  in  1825,  and 
Brookline  Bridge  so  lately  as  1850.  The  princi- 
pal thoroughfares  south  and  east  of  Old  Cambridge 
were  built  as  highways  connecting  with  these 
bridges :  thus  Biver  Street  and  Western  Avenue 
were  tributary  to  West  Boston  Bridge,  and  to 
that  point  the  Concord  Turnpike  was  prolonged  by 
Broadway,  the  Middlesex  Turnpike  by  Hampshire 
Street,  and  the  Medford  Road  by  Webster  Ave- 
nue ;  while  Cambridge  Street,  intersecting  these 
avenues,  formed  a  direct  thoroughfare  from  the 
Concord  and    Watertown    roads   to  the  northern 


Camhridge  as  Village  and  City         303 

part  of  Boston.  The  completion  of  these  impor- 
tant works  led  to  projects  for  filling  up  the  marshes 
and  establishing  docks  in  rivalry  of  Boston, — 
plans  but  very  slightly  realized  before  circum- 
stances essentially  changed  them. 

In  this  way,  Cambridge,  which  had  hitherto  faced 
the  Brighton  mainland,  turned  its  face  toward  the 
Boston  peninsula,  and  two  new  villages  began  to 
grow  up  at  "  the  Port  "  and  "  the  Point,"  otherwise 
Cambridgeport  and  East  Cambridge.  It  was  not 
long  before  the  new  villages  began  in  some  ways  to 
assert  rivalry  with  the  old  one.  The  corporation 
which  owned  the  bridge  and  large  tracts  of  land  at 
Lechmere  Point  naturally  wished  to  increase  the 
value  of  its  real  estate.  Middlesex  County  needed 
a  new  courthouse  and  jail.  In  1757  a  new  court- 
house had  been  built  on  the  site  of  Lyceum  Hall, 
but  in  1813  there  was  a  need  for  something  better ; 
whereupon  the  Lechmere  Point  Corporation  forth- 
with built  a  courthouse  and  jail  in  East  Cam- 
bridge, and  presented  them,  with  the  ground  on 
which  they  stood,  to  the  county.  In  1818,  a  lot 
of  land  in  the  Port,  bounded  by  Harvard,  Pro- 
spect, Austin,  and  Norfolk  streets,  was  appropriated 
for  a  poorhouse.  Soon  afterward  it  was  proposed 
to  inclose  our  common,  —  which  with  the  lapse  of 
time  had  shrunk  to  about  its  present  size,  —  and 


304  A  Century  of  Science 

to  convert  it  from  a  grazing  ground  into  an  or- 
namental park.  The  scheme  met  with  vehement 
opposition,  and  the  town  meetings  in  this  growing 
community  suddenly  became  so  large  that  the  old 
courthouse  in  Harvard  Square  would  not  hold 
them.  Accordingly,  a  bigger  townhouse  was  built 
in  1832  on  the  eastern  part  of  the  poorhouse  lot, 
and  thus  was  the  civic  centre  removed  from  Old 
Cambridge. 

This  event  served  to  emphasize  the  state  of 
things  which  had  been  growing  up  with  increasing 
rapidity  since  the  beginning  of  the  century.  In- 
stead of  a  single  village,  with  a  single  circle  of  in- 
terests, there  were  now  three  villages,  with  inter- 
ests diverse  and  sometimes  conflicting  as  regards 
the  expending  of  public  money,  so  that  feelings  of 
sectional  antagonism  were  developed. 

In  New  England  history,  the  usual  remedy  for 
such  a  state  of  things  has  been  what  might  be 
called  "  spontaneous  fission."  The  overgrown  town 
would  divide  into  three,  and  the  segments  would 
go  on  pouting  at  each  other  as  independent  neigh- 
bours. We  need  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  iii 
1842  the  people  of  Old  Cambridge  petitioned  to 
be  set  off  as  a  separate  town ;  but  this  attempt  was 
successfully  opposed,  with  the  result  that  in  1846 
a  city  government  was  adopted.     In  that  year  the 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         305 

population  had  reached  13,000,  and  was  approach- 
ing the  point  at  which  town  meetings  become  un- 
manageable from  sheer  bulk.  For  small  commu- 
nities, Thomas  Jefferson  was  probably  right  in 
holding  that  the  town  meeting  is  the  best  form  of 
government  ever  devised  by  man.  It  was  cer- 
tainly the  form  best  loved  in  New  England  down 
to  1822,  when  Boston,  with  its  population  of 
40,000,  reluctantly  gave  it  up,  and  adopted  a  re- 
presentative government  instead.  The  example  of 
Boston  was  followed  in  1836  by  Salem  and  Lowell, 
and  next  in  1846  by  Roxbury  and  Cambridge. 
From  that  time  forth  the  making  of  cities  went  on 
more  rapidly.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  period  of 
urban  development,  the  end  of  which  we  cannot 
as  yet  even  dimly  foresee.  This  unprecedented 
growth  of  cities  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  pecul- 
iarly American,  but  it  is  indeed  not  less  remark- 
able in  Europe,  and  it  extends  over  the  world  so 
far  as  the  influence  of  railroad  and  telegraph  ex- 
tends. The  influence  of  these  agencies  of  commu- 
nication serves  to  diffuse  over  wide  areas  the  effects 
wrought  by  machinery  at  different  centres  of  pro- 
duction. With  increased  demand  for  human  en- 
ergy, the  earth's  power  of  sustaining  human  life 
has  vastly  increased,  and  there  is  a  strong  tendency 
to  congregate  about  centres  of  production  and  ex- 


306  A  Century  of  Science 

change.  In  1846  there  were  but  five  cities  in  the 
United  States  with  a  population  exceeding  100,000  ; 
New  York  had  not  yet  reached  half  a  million. 
To-day  New  York  is  approaching  the  two-million 
mark,  three  other  cities  ^  have  passed  the  million, 
and  not  less  than  thirty  have  passed  the  hundred- 
thousand.  During  this  half  century  the  13,000  of 
Cambridge  have  increased  to  more  than  80,000. 
The  Cambridge  of  to-day  contains  as  many  people 
as  the  Boston  of  sixty  years  ago. 

The  causes  of  this  growth  of  Cambridge  might 
be  treated,  had  we  space  for  it,  under  three  heads. 
Our  city  has  grown  because  of  its  proximity  to  Bos- 
ton ;  it  has  grown  by  reason  of  its  flourishing  man- 
ufactures ;  and  it  has  grown  with  the  growth  of  the 
University.  That  Cambridge  should  have  shared 
in  the  general  prosperity  of  this  whole  suburban 
region  is  but  natural.  But  persons  at  a  distance 
are  apt  to  show  surprise  when  we  speak  of  it  as  a 
manufacturing  city.  This  feature  in  our  develop- 
ment belongs  to  the  period  subsequent  to  1846, 
and  has  much  to  do  with  the  growth  of  the  eastern 
portions  of  Cambridge,  where  the  combined  facili- 
ties for  railroad  and  water   communication  have 

1  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  and  Brooklyn.  By  the  annexation  of 
Brooklyn,  the  population  of  New  York  is  now  (1899)  carried  up 
to  3,500,000,  making  it  the  second  city  in  the  world. 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         307 

been  peculiarly  favourable  to  manufactures.  In 
the  early  part  of  this  century,  the  glassworks  at 
East  Cambridge,  which  have  since  departed,  were 
somewhat  famous,  considerable  manufactures  of 
soap  and  leather  had  been  begun,  and  cars  and 
wagons  were  made  here.  At  the  present  time 
some  of  our  chief  manufactures  are  of  engine 
boilers  and  various  kinds  of  machinery,  of  which 
the  annual  product  exceeds  $2,000,000.  Among 
the  industries  which  produce  in  yearly  value  more 
than  fl, 000,000  may  be  mentioned  printing  and 
publishing,  musical  instruments  (especially  pianos 
and  organs),  furniture,  clothing,  carpenter's  work, 
soap  and  candles,  biscuit-baking ;  while  among 
those  that  produce  $500,000  or  more  are  carriage- 
making  and  wheelwright's  work,  plumbing  and 
plumber's  materials,  bricks  and  tiles,  and  confec- 
tionery. Not  only  our  own  new  Harvard  Bridge, 
but  most  of  the  steel  railway  bridges  in  New  Eng- 
land, have  been  built  in  Cambridge.  We  supply 
a  considerable  part  of  the  world  with  hydrauhc  en- 
gines ;  the  United  States  Navy  comes  here  for  its 
pumps,  and  our  pumping  machines  may  be  seen  at 
work  in  Honolulu,  in  Sydney,  in  St.  Petersburg. 
In  the  dimensions  of  its  pork-packing  industry, 
Cambridge  comes  next  after  Chicago  and  Kansas 
City.     In  1842  all  the  fish-netting  used  in  Amer- 


308  A  Century  of  Science 

ica  was  made  in  England ;  to-day  it  is  chiefly 
made  in  East  Cambridge,  which  also  furnishes  the 
twine  prized  by  disciples  of  Izaak  Walton  in  many 
parts  of  the  world.  Last  year  the  potteries  on 
Walden  Street  turned  out  seven  million  flower- 
pots. Such  facts  as  these  bear  witness  to  the  un- 
usual facilities  of  our  city,  where  coal  can  be  taken 
and  freight  can  be  shipped  at  the  very  door  of  the 
factory,  where  taxes  and  insurance  are  not  burden- 
some and  the  fire  department  is  unsurpassed  for 
efficiency,  where  skilled  labour  is  easy  to  get  because 
good  workmen  find  life  comfortable  and  attractive, 
with  excellent  sanitary  conditions  and  unrivalled 
means  of  free  education,  even  to  the  Latin  School 
and  the  Manual  Training  School.  It  is  well  said, 
in  one  of  the  reports  in  our  semi-centennial  vol- 
ume, that  "  to  Cambridge  herself,  as  much  as  to 
any  other  one  thing,  is  the  success  of  all  her  manu- 
facturing enterprises  due,  and  all  agree  in  acknow- 
ledging it." 

Among  Cambridge  industries,  two  may  be  men- 
tioned as  especially  characteristic  and  famous.  Of 
the  printing  establishments  now  existing,  not  many 
can  be  more  venerable  than  our  University  Press, 
of  which  we  have  spoken  as  beginning  in  1639. 
Of  the  wise  and  genial  founder  of  the  Riverside 
Press  —  who    once    was    mayor  of  our   city,   and 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         309 

whose  memory  we  love  and  revere  —  it  may  be 
said  that  few  men  of  recent  times  have  had.  a 
higher  conception  of  bookmaking  as  one  of  the 
fine  arts.  These  two  institutions  have  set  a  lofty 
standard  for  the  Athenaeum  Press,  which  has  lately 
come  to  bear  them  company.  The  past  half  cen- 
tury has  seen  Cambridge  come  into  the  foremost 
rank  among  the  few  publishing  centres  of  the 
world,  where  books  are  printed  with  faultless  accu- 
racy and  artistic  taste. 

The  visitor  to  Cambridge  from  Brookline,  as  he 
leaves  the  bridge  at  Brookline  Street,  comes  upon 
a  pleasant  dwelling  house,  with  a  private  observa- 
tory, and  hard  by  it  a  plain  brick  building.  That 
is  the  shop  of  Alvan  Clark  &  Sons,  who  have 
carried  the  art  of  telescope-making  to  a  height 
never  reached  before.  There  have  been  made  the 
most  powerful  refracting  telescopes  in  the  world, 
and  one  of  the  firm,  more  than  thirty  years  ago, 
himself  acquired  fame  as  an  astronomer  for  his  dis- 
covery of  the  companion  of  Sirius. 

From  this  quiet  nook  in  the  Port  one's  thoughts 
naturally  turn  to  the  Harvard  Observatory,  which 
in  those  days  the  two  Bonds  made  famous  for  their 
accurate  methods  of  research,  their  discoveries 
relating  to  the  planet  Saturn,  and  their  share 
in   the    application   of  photography  to    telescopic 


310  A  Century  of  Science 

observation.  The  honourable  position  then  taken 
by  the  Observatory  has  been  since  maintained; 
but  as  we  note  this,  we  find  ourselves  brought  to 
the  consideration  of  the  University  and  its  last 
haK  century  of  growth.  And  here  my  remarks 
cannot  help  taking  the  form,  to  some  extent,  of 
personal  reminiscences. 

When  I  first  came  to  Old  Cambridge,  in  1860, 
it  still  had  much  of  the  village  look,  which  it  has 
since  been  fast  losing.  Pretty  much  all  the  spaces 
now  covered  by  street  after  street  of  wooden  "  Queen 
Anne "  houses,  in  such  proximity  as  to  make  one 
instinctively  look  for  the  whereabouts  of  the  nearest 
fire  alarm,  were  then  open,  smiling  fields.  The  old 
house  where  the  Shepard  Church  stands  was  rural 
enough  for  the  Berkshire  Hills ;  and  on  the  site  of 
Austin  Hall,  in  the  doorway  of  a  homestead  built 
in  1710,  one  might  pause  for  a  cosy  chat  with  the 
venerable  and  courtly  Koyal  Morse,  whose  personal 
recollections  went  back  into  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  trees  on  the  common  were  the  merest  sap- 
lings, but  an  elm  of  mighty  sweep,  whose  loss  one 
must  regret,  shaded  the  whole  of  Harvard  Square. 
Horse  cars  came  and  went  on  week  days,  but  on 
Sunday  he  who  would  visit  Boston  must  either 
walk  or  take  an  omnibus,  in  which  riding  was  a 
penance  severe  enough  to  atone  for  the  sin.    "  Blue 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         311 

Laws  "  in  the  University  were  in  full  force  ;  the 
student  who  spent  his  Sundays  at  home  in  Boston 
must  bring  out  a  certificate  showing  that  he  had 
attended  divine  service  twice ;  no  discretion  was 
allowed  the  parents. 

College  athletics  were  in  their  infancy,  as  the 
little  gymnasium  stiU  standing  serves  to  remind 
us.  There  were  rowing  matches,  but  baseball  had 
not  come  upon  the  scene,  and  football  had  just 
been  summarily  suppressed.  The  first  college 
exercise  in  which  I  took  part  was  the  burial  of  the 
football,  with  solemn  rites,  in  a  corner  of  this 
Delta.  On  Class  Day  there  was  no  need  for  clos- 
ing the  yard ;  there  was  room  enough  for  all,  and 
groups  of  youths  and  maidens  in  light  summer 
dress,  dancing  on  the  green  before  Hoi  worthy, 
made  a  charming  picture,  like  that  of  an  ancient 
May  Day  in  merry  England,  save  for  the  broiling 
heat. 

The  examination  days  which  followed  were  more 
searching  than  at  other  American  colleges.  The 
courses  of  study  were  on  the  whole  better  arranged 
than  elsewhere,  but  during  the  first  half  of  the 
course  everything  was  prescribed,  and  in  the  last 
half  the  elective  system  played  but  a  subordinate 
part.  The  system  of  examinations  did  not  extend 
to  the  Law  School,  where  a  simple  residence  of 


312  A  Century  of  Science 

three  terms  entitled  a  student  to  receive  the  bache- 
lor's degree.  The  library  at  Gore  Hall  had  less 
than  one  fifth  of  its  present  volumes,  with  no  cata- 
logue accessible  to  the  public,  while  one  small  table 
accommodated  all  the  readers.  For  laboratory 
work  the  facilities  were  meagre,  and  very  little 
was  done.  We  all  studied  a  book  of  chemistry ; 
how  many  of  us  ever  really  looked  at  such  things 
as  manganese  or  antimony  ?  For  the  student  of 
biology  the  provision  was  better,  for  the  Botanic 
Garden  was  very  helpful,  and  in  the  autumn  of 
1860  was  opened  the  first  section  of  our  glorious 
Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology. 

Here  one  is  naturally  led  to  the  reflection  that 
in  that  day  of  small  things,  as  some  might  call  it, 
there  were  spiritual  influences  operative  at  Harvard 
which  more  than  made  up  for  shortcomings  in 
material  equipment.  There  is  a  kind  of  human 
presence,  all  too  rare  in  this  world,  which  is  in 
itself  a  stimulus  and  an  education  worth  more  than 
all  the  scholastic  artifices  that  the  wit  of  man  has 
devised  ;  for  in  the  mere  contact  with  it  one's  mind 
is  trained  and  widened  as  if  by  enchantment.  Such 
a  human  presence  in  Cambridge  was  Louis  Agassiz. 
Can  one  ever  forget  that  beaming  face  as  he  used 
to  come  strolling  across  the  yard,  with  lighted 
cigar,  in  serene  obliviousness  of  the  University  stat- 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         313 

utes?  Scarcely  had  one  passed  him,  when  one 
might  exchange  a  pleasant  word  with  Asa  Gray, 
or  descry  in  some  arching  vista  the  picturesque 
figures  of  Sophocles  or  Peirce,  or,  turning  up 
Brattle  Street,  encounter,  with  a  thrill  of  pleasure 
not  untinged  with  awe,  Longfellow  and  Lowell 
walking  side  by  side.  In  such  wise  are  the  streets 
and  lawns  of  our  city  hallowed  by  the  human  pre- 
sences that  once  graced  them;  and  few  are  the 
things  to  be  had  for  which  one  would  exchange 
the  memories  of  those  days ! 

My  class  of  1863,  with  120  members,  was  the 
largest  that  had  been  graduated  here.  It  would 
have  been  larger  but  for  the  Civil  War,  and  a 
period  followed  with  classes  of  less  than  100 
members,  —  a  sad  commentary  upon  the  times. 
Boundless  possibilities  of  valuable  achievement 
must  be  sacrificed  to  secure  the  supreme  end,  that 
the  commonwealth  should  not  suffer  harm.  How 
nobly  Harvard  responded  to  the  demand  is  recorded 
upon  the  solemn  tablets  in  this  Memorial  HaU. 
For  those  who  are  inclined  to  dally  with  the  thought 
that  war  is  something  that  may  be  undertaken 
lightly  and  with  frolicsome  heart,  this  sacred  pre- 
cinct and  the  monument  on  yonder  common  have 
their  lesson  that  may  well  be  pondered. 

The  vast  growth  of  our  country  since  the  Civil 


314  A  Century  of  Science 

War  has  been  attended  with  the  creation  of  new 
universities  and  the  enlargement  of  the  old  ones 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  show  that  the  demand  for 
higher  education  more  than  keeps  pace  with  the 
increase  of  population.  The  last  graduating  class 
in  our  Quinquennial  Catalogue  numbered  350 
members.  The  University  contains  more  than  3000 
students.!  The  increase  in  number  of  instructors, 
in  courses  of  instruction,  in  laboratories  and  mu- 
seums, in  facilities  and  appliances  of  every  sort,  has 
wrought  changes  like  those  in  a  fairy  tale.  The 
Annual  Catalogue  is  getting  to  be  as  multifarious 
as  Bradshaw's  Guide,  and  a  trained  intellect  is 
required  to  read  it.  The  little  college  of  half  a 
century  ago  has  bloomed  forth  as  one  of  the  world's 
foremost  universities.  Such  things  can  come  from 
great  opportunities  wielded  and  made  the  most 
of  by  clearness  of  vision  and  administrative  capa- 
city. 

To  this  growth  of  the  University  must  be  added 
the  most  happy  inception  and  growth  of  Kadcliffe 
College,  marking  as  it  does  the  maturing  of  a  new 
era  in  the  education  of  women.  We  may  well  wish 
for  Radcliffe  a  career  as  noble  and  as  useful  as  that 
of  Harvard,  and  I  doubt  not  that  such  is  in  store 

1  In  1898  the  number  had  risen  to  4660,  besides  411  women 
students  in  Radcliffe. 


Cambridge  as  Village  and  City         315 

for  it.  A  word  must  be  said  of  the  Episcopal 
Theological  School,  based  upon  ideas  as  sound  and 
broad  as  Christianity ;  and  of  the  New-Church 
Theological  School,  more  recently  founded.  We 
must  hail  such  indications  of  the  tendency  toward 
making  our  Cambridge  the  centre  for  the  untram- 
melled study  of  the  most  vital  problems  that  can 
occupy  the  human  mind. 

But  the  day  we  are  celebrating  is  a  civic,  not 
a  university  occasion,  and  I  must  dwell  no  longer 
upon  academic  themes.  We  are  signalizing  the 
anniversary .  of  the  change  which  we  once  made 
from  government  by  town  meeting  to  city  govern- 
ment. Have  we  a  good  reason  for  celebrating  that 
change?  Has  our  career  as  a  civic  community 
been  worthy  of  approval  ?  In  answering  this  ques- 
tion, I  shall  not  undertake  to  sum  up  the  story  of 
our  public  schools  and  library ;  our  hospital  and 
charity  organizations ;  the  excellent  and  harmonious 
work  of  our  churches,  Protestant  and  Catholic  ;  our 
Prospect  Union,  warmly  to  be  commended ;  our  ar- 
rangements for  water  supply  and  sewage ;  and  our 
admirable  park  system  (in  which  we  may  express 
a  hope  that  Elmwood  will  be  included).  This 
interesting  and  suggestive  story  may  be  read  in 
the  semi-centennial  volume,  "The  Cambridge  of 
Eighteen  Hundred   and  Ninety-Six,"   just   issued 


316  A  Century  of  Science 

from  the  Riverside  Press.  It  is  an  enlivening 
story  of  progress,  but  like  every  story*  it  has  a 
moral,  and  I  am  going  to  pass  over  details  and 
make  straight  for  that  moral.  Americans  are  a 
bragging  race  because  they  have  enjoyed  immense 
opportunities,  and  are  apt  to  forget  that  the  true 
merit  lies,  not  in  the  opportunity,  but  in  the  use 
we  make  of  it.  Much  gratifying  progress  can  be 
achieved  in  spite  of  the  worst  sort  of  blundering 
and  sinning  on  the  part  of  governments.  The 
greater  part,  indeed,  of  human  progress  within  his- 
toric times  has  been  thus  achieved.  A  good  deal 
of  the  progress  of  which  Americans  are  wont  to 
boast  has  been  thus  achieved.  Now  the  moral  of 
our  story  is  closely  concerned  with  the  fact  that  in 
the  city  of  Cambridge  such  has  not  been  the  case. 
Our  city  government  has  from  the  outset  been  up- 
right, intelligent,  and  helpful.  We  are  satisfied 
with  it.  "We  do  not  wish  to  change  it.  In  this 
respect  the  experience  of  Cambridge  is  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  many  other  American  cities. 
The  government  of  our  cities  is  acknowledged  to 
be  a  problem  of  rare  difficulty,  so  that  it  has  begun 
to  seem  a  natural  line  of  promotion  for  a  successful 
mayor  to  elect  him  governor,  and  then  to  send  him 
to  the  White  House!  In  some  cities  one  finds 
people  inclined  to  give  up  the  problem  as  insoluble. 


Camhridge  as  Village  and  City         317 

I  was  lately  assured  by  a  gentleman  in  a  city  which 
I  will  not  name,  but  more  than  a  thousand  miles 
from  here,  that  the  only  cure  for  the  accumulated 
wrongs  of  that  community  would  be  an  occasional 
coup  d^etat^  with  the  massacre  of  all  the  city  offi- 
cers. So  the  last  word  of  our  boasted  progress, 
whentit  comes  to  municipal  government,  is  declared 
to  be  the  Oriental  idea  of  "  despotism  tempered  by 
assassination  "  !  Now  to  what  cause  or  causes  are 
we  to  ascribe  the  contrast  between  Cambridge  and 
the  cities  that  are  so  wretchedly  governed  ?  The 
answer  is,  that  in  Cambridge  we  keep  city  govern- 
ment clear  of  politics,  we  do  not  mix  up  municipal 
questions  with  national  questions.  If  I  may  repeat 
what  I  have  said  elsewhere,  *' since  the  object  of 
a  municipal  election  is  simply  to  secure  an  up- 
right and  efficient  municipal  government,  to  elect 
a  city  magistrate  because  he  is  a  Eepublican  or  a 
Democrat  is  about  as  sensible  as  to  elect  him  be- 
cause he  beheves  in  homoeopathy  or  has  a  taste  for 
chrysanthemums."  Upon  this  plain  and  obvious 
principle  of  common  sense  our  city  has  acted,  on 
the  whole  with  remarkable  success,  during  its  half 
century  of  municipal  existence.  The  results  we 
see  all  about  us,  and  the  example  may  be  com- 
mended as  an  object  lesson  to  all  who  are  inter- 
ested in  the  most  vital  work  that  can  occupy  the 


318  A  Century  of  Science 

mind  of  an  American,  —  the  work  of  elevating 
the  moral  tone  of  public  life.  For  it  is  neither 
wealth,  nor  power,  nor  cunning,  nor  craft  that 
exalts  a  nation,  but  righteousness  and  the  fear  of 
the  Lord. 

May,  1896. 


XI 

A  HARVEST  OF   IRISH   FOLK-LORE 

Since  the  days  when  Castren  made  his  arduous 
journeys  of  linguistic  exploration  in  Siberia,  or 
when  the  brothers  Grimm  collected  their  rich  trea- 
sures of  folk-lore  from  the  lips  of  German  pea- 
sants, an  active  quest  of  vocables  and  myths  has 
been  conducted  with  much  zeal  and  energy  in  nearly 
all  parts  of  the  world.  We  have  tales,  proverbs, 
fragments  of  verse,  superstitious  beliefs  and  usages, 
from  Greenland,  from  the  southern  Pacific,  from 
the  mountaineers  of  Thibet  and  the  freedmen  upon 
Georgia  plantations.  We  follow  astute  Reynard 
to  the  land  of  the  Hottentots,  and  find  the  ubiqui- 
tous Jack  planting  his  beanstalk  among  the  Dog- 
Rib  Indians.  At  the  same  time,  the  nooks  and 
corners  of  Europe  have  been  ransacked  with  boun- 
tiful results ;  so  that  whereas  our  grandfathers,  in 
speculating  about  the  opinions  and  mental  habits 
of  people  in  low  stages  of  culture,  were  deahng 
with  a  subject  about  which  they  knew  almost  no- 
thing, on  the  other  hand,  our  chief  difficulty  to-day 


320  A  Century  of  Science 

is  in  shaping  and  managing  the  enormous  mass  of 
data  which  keen  and  patient  inquirers  have  col- 
lected. It  is  well  that  this  work  has  been  carried 
so  far  in  our  time,  for  modern  habits  of  thought 
are  fast  exterminating  the  Old  World  fancies. 
Railroad,  newspaper,  and  telegraphic  bulletin  of 
prices  are  carrying  everything  before  them.  The 
peasant's  quaint  dialect  and  his  fascinating  myth 
tales  are  disappearing  along  with  his  picturesque 
dress;  and  savages,  such  of  them  as  do  not  suc- 
cumb to  fire-water,  are  fast  taking  on  the  airs  and 
manners  of  civilized  folk.  It  is  high  time  to  be 
gathering  in  aU  the  primitive  lore  we  can  find, 
before  the  men  and  women  in  whose  minds  it  is 
still  a  living  reahty  have  all  passed  from  the  scene. 
The  collection  of  Irish  myth  stories  lately  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  Jeremiah  Curtin  ^  is  the  result  of  a 
myth-hunting  visit  which  the  author  made  in  Ire- 
land in  1887,  and  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
and  valuable  contributions  to  the  study  of  folk-lore 
that  have  been  made  for  many  years.  "  AU  the 
tales  in  my  collection,"  says  Mr.  Curtin,  "  of  which 
those  printed  in  this  volume  form  but  a  part,  were 
taken  down  from  the  mouths  of  men  who,  with  one 
or  two  excepti(tns,  spoke  only  Gaelic,  or  but  little 

^  Myths   and    Folk-Lore    of   Ireland.      By  Jeremiah   Curtin. 
Boston:  Little,  Brown  &  Co.    1890. 


A  Harvest  of  Irish  FolhLore  321 

English,  and  that  imperfectly.  These  men  belong 
to  a  group  of  persons  all  of  whom  are  well  ad- 
vanced in  years,  and  some  very  old;  with  them 
will  pass  away  the  majority  of  the  story-tellers  of 
Ireland,  unless  new  interest  in  the  ancient  lan- 
guage and  lore  of  the  country  is  roused. 

"  For  years  previous  to  my  visit  of  1887  I  was 
not  without  hope  of  finding  some  myth  tales  in  a 
good  state  of  preservation.  I  was  led  to  entertain 
this  hope  by  indications  in  the  few  Irish  stories 
already  published,  and  by  certain  tales  and  beliefs 
that  I  had  taken  down  myself  from  old  Irish  per- 
sons in  the  United  States.  Still,  during  the  ear- 
lier part  of  my  visit  in  Ireland,  I  was  greatly 
afraid  that  the  best  myth  materials  had  perished. 
Inquiries  as  to  who  might  be  in  possession  of  these 
old  stories  seemed  fruitless  for  a  considerable  time. 
The  persons  whom  I  met  that  were  capable  of 
reading  the  Gaelic  language  had  never  collected 
stories,  and  could  refer  only  in  a  general  way  to 
the  districts  in  which  the  ancient  language  was 
still  living.  All  that  was  left  was  to  seek  out  the 
old  people  for  whom  Gaelic  is  the  every-day  speech, 
and  trust  to  fortune  to  find  the  story-tellers." 

Thus  Mr.  Curtin  was  led  to  explore  the  counties 
of  Kerry,  Galway,  and  Donegal.  "  Comforting 
myself  with  the  Russian  proverb  that  '  game  runs 


322  A  Century  of  Science 

to  meet  the  hunter,'  I  set  out  on  my  pilgrimage, 
giving  more  prominence  to  the  study  and  investi- 
gation of  Gaelic,  which,  though  one  of  the  two 
objects  of  my  visit,  was  not  the  first.  In  this  way 
I  thought  to  come  more  surely  upon  men  who  had 
myth  tales  in  their  minds  than  if  I  went  directly 
seeking  for  them.  I  was  not  disappointed,  for  in 
all  my  journeyings  I  did  not  meet  a  single  person 
who  knew  a  myth  tale  or  an  old  story  who  was  not 
fond  of  Gaelic,  and  specially  expert  in  the  use 
of  it,  while  I  found  very  few  story-tellers  from 
whom  a  myth  tale  could  be  obtained  unless  in  the 
Gaelic  language ;  and  in  no  case  have  I  found  a 
story  in  the  possession  of  a  man  or  woman  who 
knew  only  English." 

There  is  something  so  interesting  in  this  fact, 
and  so  pathetic  in  the  explanation  of  it,  that  we 
are  tempted  to  quote  further :  "  Since  all  mental 
training  in  Ireland  is  directed  by  powers  both  for- 
eign and  hostile  to  everything  Gaelic,  the  moment 
a  man  leaves  the  sphere  of  that  class  which  uses 
Gaelic  as  an  every-day  language,  and  which  clings 
to  the  ancient  ideas  of  the  people,  everything  which 
he  left  behind  seems  to  him  valueless,  senseless, 
and  vulgar ;  consequently  he  takes  no  care  to  re- 
tain it,  either  in  whole  or  in  part.  Hence  the  clean 
sweep  of  myth  tales  in  one  part  of  the  country,  — 


A  Harvest  of  Irish  Folh-Lore  323 

the  greater  part,  occupied  by  a  majority  of  the 
people ;  while  they  are  still  preserved  in  other  and 
remoter  districts,  inhabited  by  men  who,  for  the 
scholar  and  the  student  of  mankind,  are  by  far  the 
most  interesting  in  Ireland." 

The  fate  of  the  Gaelic  language  has,  indeed, 
been  peculiarly  sad.  In  various  parts  of  Europe, 
and  especially  among  the  western  Slavs,  the  native 
tongues  have  been  to  some  extent  displaced  by  the 
speech  of  conquering  peoples;  yet  it  is  only  in 
Erin  that,  within  modern  times,  a  "language  of 
Aryan  stock  has  been  driven  first  from  public  use, 
and  then  dropped  from  the  worship  of  God  and  the 
life  of  the  fireside."  Hence,  while  in  many  parts 
of  Europe  the  ancient  tales  live  on,  often  with  their 
incidents  more  or  less  dislocated  and  their  signifi- 
cance quite  blurred,  on  the  other  hand,  in  English- 
speaking  Ireland  they  have  been  cleared  away  "  as 
a  forest  is  felled  by  the  axe." 

Nevertheless,  in  the  regions  where  Irish  myths 
have  been  preserved,  they  have  been  remarkably 
well  preserved,  and  bear  unmistakable  marks  of 
their  vast  antiquity.  One  very  noticeable  feature 
in  these  myths  is  the  definiteness  and  precision  of 
detail  with  which  the  personages  and  their  fields  of 
action  are  brought  before  us.  This  is  a  character- 
istic of  mythologies  which  are,  comparatively  speak- 


324  A  Century  of  Science 

ing,  intact ;  and,  as  Mr.  Curtin  observes,  it  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  myths  of  the  American  Indians.  As 
long  as  a  mythology  remains  intact  it  ''  puts  its 
imprint  on  the  whole  region  to  which  it  belongs.'* 
Every  rock,  every  spring,  is  the  scene  of  some  defi- 
nite incident ;  every  hill  has  its  mythical  people, 
who  are  as  real  to  the  narrators  as  the  flesh-and- 
blood  population  which  one  finds  there.  In  this 
whole  world  of  belief  and  sentiment  there  is  the 
vigour  of  fresh  life,  and  the  country  is  literally 
enchanted  ground.  But  when,  through  the  inva- 
sion of  alien  peoples,  there  is  a  mingling  and  con- 
flict of  sacred  stories,  and  new  groups  of  ideas  and 
associations  have  partly  displaced  the  old  ones,  so 
that  only  the  argument  or  general  statement  of  the 
ancient  myth  is  retained,  and  perhaps  even  that 
but  partially,  then  "  all  precision  and  details  with 
reference  to  persons  and  places  vanish;  they  be- 
come indefinite ;  are  in  some  kingdom,  some  place, 
—  nowhere  in  particular."  There  is  this  vague- 
ness in  the  folk-tales  of  eastern  and  central  Europe 
as  contrasted  with  those  of  Ireland.  "  Where  there 
was  or  where  there  was  not,"  says  the  Magyar, 
"  there  was  in  the  world ;  "  or,  if  the  Russian  hero 
goes  anywhere,  it  is  simply  across  forty-nine  king- 
doms, etc. ;  "  but  in  the  Irish  tales  he  is  always  a 
person  of  known  condition  in  a  specified  place" 


A  Harvest  of  Irish  Folk-Lore  325 

(for  example,  "  There  was  a  blacksmith  in  Dun- 
kenealy,  beyond  Killybegs,"  etc.,  page  244). 

As  to  the  antiquity  and  the  primitive  character 
of  Mr.  Curtin's  stories  an  experienced  observer  can 
entertain  no  doubt.  His  book  is  certainly  the 
most  considerable  achievement  in  the  field  of  Gae- 
lic mythology  since  the  publication,  thirty  years 
ago,  of  Campbell's  "Tales  of  the  West  High- 
lands ; "  and  it  does  for  the  folk-lore  of  Ireland 
what  Asbjbrnsen  and  Moe's  collection  (the  English 
translation  of  which  is  commonly,  and  with  some 
injustice,  known  by  the  name  of  the  translator  as 
Dasent's  "  Norse  Tales  ")  did  for  the  folk-lore  of 
Norway.  This  is,  of  course,  very  high  praise,  but 
we  do  not  believe  it  will  be  called  extravagant  by 
any  competent  scholar  who  reads  Mr.  Curtin's  book. 
The  stories  have  evidently  been  reduced  to  writing 
with  most  scrupulous  and  loving  fidelity.  In  turn- 
ing the  Gaelic  into  English  some  of  the  character- 
istic Hibernian  phrases  and  constructions  of  our 
language  have  been  employed,  and  this  has  been 
done  with  such  perfect  good  taste  that  the  effect 
upon  the  ear  is  like  that  of  a  refined  and  delicate 
brogue. 

The  mythical  material  in  the  stories  is  largely 
that  with  which  the  student  of  Aryan  folk-lore  is 
familiar.     We   have  variants   of   Cinderella,   the 


326  A  Century  of  Science 

swan  maidens,  the  giant  who  had  no  heart  in  his 
body,  the  cloak  of  darkness,  the  sword  of  light,  the 
magic  steed  which  overtakes  the  wind  before  and 
outstrips  the  wind  behind ;  the  pot  of  plenty,  from 
which  one  may  eat  forever,  and  the  cup  that  is 
never  drained ;  the  hero  who  performs  impossible 
tasks,  and  wooes  maidens  whose  beauty  hardly  re- 
lieves their  treacherous  cruelty  :  "  I  must  tell  you 
now  that  three  hundred  king's  sons,  lacking  one, 
have  come  to  ask  for  my  daughter,  and  in  the 
garden  behind  my  castle  are  three  hundred  iron 
spikes,  and  every  spike  of  them  but  one  is  covered 
with  the  head  of  a  king's  son  who  could  n't  do 
what  my  daughter  wanted  of  liim,  and  I  'm  greatly 
in  dread  that  your  own  head  will  be  put  on  the  one 
spike  that  is  left  uncovered."  The  princess  in  this 
story  —  Shaking  -  Head  —  is  such  a  wretch,  not 
a  bit  better  than  Queen  Labe  in  the  "  Arabian 
Nights,"  that  one  marvels  at  the  hero  for  marrying 
her  at  last,  instead  of  slicing  off  her  head  with  his 
two-handed  sword  of  darkness,  and  placing  it  on 
the  three-hundredth  spike.  But  moral  as  well  as 
physical  probabilities  are  often  overstrained  in  this 
deliciously  riotous  realm  of  folk-lore. 

Along  with  much  material  that  is  common  to 
the  Aryan  world  there  is  some  that  is  peculiar  to 
Ireland,  while  the  Irish  atmosphere  is  over  every- 


A  Harvest  of  Irish  Folk-Lore  327 

thing.  The  stories  of  Fin  MacCumhail  (pro- 
nounced MacCool)  and  the  Fenians  of  Erin  are 
full  of  grotesque  incident  and  inimitable  drollery. 
Fin  and  his  redoubtable  dog  Bran,  the  one-eyed 
Gruagach,  the  hero  Diarmuid,  the  old  hag  with  the 
life-giving  ointment,  the  weird  hand  of  Mai  Mac- 
Mulcan,  and  the  cowherd  that  was  son  of  the  king 
of  Alban  make  a  charming  series  of  pictures. 
Among  Fin's  followers  there  is  a  certain  Conan 
Maol,  "  who  never  had  a  good  word  in  his  mouth 
for  any  man,"  and  for  whom  no  man  had  a  good 
word.  This  counterpart  of  Thersites,  as  Mr.  Cur- 
tin  tells  us,  figures  as  conspicuously  in  North 
American  as  in  Aryan  myths.  Conan  was  always 
at  Fin's  side,  and  advising  him  to  mischief.  Once 
it  had  like  to  have  gone  hard  with  Conan.  The 
Fenians  had  been  inveigled  into  an  enchanted 
castle,  and  could  not  rise  from  their  chairs  till  two 
of  Fin's  sons  had  gone  and  beheaded  three  kings 
in  the  north  of  Erin,  and  put  their  blood  into 
three  goblets,  and  come  back  and  rubbed  the  blood 
on  the  chairs.  Conan  had  no  chair,  but  was  sit- 
ting on  the  floor,  with  his  back  to  the  wall,  and 
just  before  they  came  to  him  the  last  drop  of  blood 
gave  out.  The  Fenians  were  hurrying  past  without 
minding  the  mischief-maker,  when,  upon  his  ear- 
nest appeal,  Diarmuid  "  took  him  by  one  hand,  and 


328  A  Century  of  Science 

Goll  MacMornee  by  the  other,  and,  pulling  with 
all  their  might,  tore  him  from  the  wall  and  the 
floor.  But  if  they  did,  he  left  all  the  skin  of  his 
back,  from  his  head  to  his  heels,  on  the  floor  and 
the  wall  behind  him.  But  when  they  were  going 
home  through  the  hills  of  Tralee,  they  found  a 
sheep  on  the  way,  killed  it,  and  clapped  the  skin 
on  Conan.  The  sheepskin  grew  to  his  body ;  and 
he  was  so  well  and  strong  that  they  sheared  him 
every  year,  and  got  wool  enough  from  his  back  to 
make  flannel  and  frieze  for  the  Fenians  of  Erin 
ever  after."  This  is  a  favourite  incident,  and  recurs 
in  the  story  of  the  laughing  Gruagach.  In  most 
of  the  Fenian  stories  the  fighting  is  brisk  and  in- 
cessant. It  is  quite  a  Donnybrook  fair.  Every- 
body kills  everybody  else,  and  then  some  toothless 
old  woman  comes  along  and  rubs  a  magic  salve  on 
them,  when,  all  in  a  minute,  up  they  pop,  and  go 
at  it  again. 

One  of  the  quaintest  conceits,  and  a  pretty  one 
withal,  is  that  of  Tir  na  n-Og,  the  Land  of  Youth, 
the  life-giving  region  just  beneath  the  ground, 
whence  mysteriously  spring  the  sturdy  trees,  the 
soft  green  grass,  and  the  bright  flowers.  The 
journey  thither  is  not  long;  sometimes  the  hero 
just  puUs  up  a  root  and  dives  down  through  the 
hole  into  the  blessed  Tir  na  n-Og,  —  as  primitive  a 


A  Harvest  of  Irish  Folh-Lore  329 

bit  of  folk-lore  as  one  could  wish  to  find!  A 
lovely  country,  of  course,  was  that  land  of  sprout- 
ing life,  and  some  queer  customs  did  they  have 
there.  The  mode  of  "  running  for  office  "  was  es- 
pecially worthy  of  mention.  Once  in  seven  years 
all  the  champions  and  best  men  "  met  at  the  front 
of  the  palace,  and  ran  to  the  top  of  a  hill  two 
miles  distant.  On  the  top  of  that  hill  was  a  chair, 
and  the  man  that  sat  first  in  the  chair  was  king  of 
Tir  na  n-Og  for  the  next  seven  years."  This  method 
enabled  them  to  dispense  with  nominating  conven- 
tions and  campaign  lies,  but  not  with  intrigue  and 
sorcery,  as  we  find  in  the  droll  story  of  Oisin  (or 
Ossian),  which  concludes  the  Fenian  series. 

The  story  of  the  Fisherman's  Son  and  the  Grua- 
gach  of  Tricks  is  substantially  the  same  with  the 
famous  story  of  Farmer  Weathersky,  in  the  Norse 
collection  translated  by  Sir  George  Dasent.  Gru- 
agach  (accented  on  the  first  syllable)  means  "the 
hairy  one,"  and,  as  Mr.  Curtin  cautiously  observes, 
"  we  are  more  likely  to  be  justified  in  finding  a 
solar  agent  concealed  in  the  person  of  the  laughing 
Gruagach  or  the  Gruagach  of  Tricks  than  in  many 
of  the  sun  myths  put  forth  by  some  modern  writ- 
ers." He  reminds  one  of  Hermes  and  of  Proteus, 
and  in  the  wonderful  changes  at  the  end  of  the 
story  we  have,  as  in  Farmer  Weathersky,  a  vari- 


330  A  Century  of  Science 

ant  of  the  catastrophe  in  the  story  of  the  Second 
Royal  Mendicant  in  the  "  Arabian  Nights ; "  but  the 
Irishman  gives  us  a  touch  of  humour  that  is  quite 
his  own.  The  Gruagach  and  his  eleven  artful 
sons  are  chasing  the  fisherman's  son  through  water 
and  air,  and  various  forms  of  fish  and  bird  are 
assumed,  until  at  length  the  fisherman's  son,  in  the 
shape  of  a  swallow,  hovers  over  the  summerhouse 
where  the  daughter  of  the  king  of  Erin  is  sitting. 
Weary  with  the  chase,  the  swallow  becomes  a  ring, 
and  falls  into  the  girl's  lap ;  it  takes  her  fancy,  and 
she  puts  it  on  her  finger.  Then  the  twelve  pur- 
suers change  from  hawks  into  handsome  men,  and 
entertain  the  king  in  his  castle  with  music  and 
games,  until  he  asks  them  what  in  the  world  he 
can  give  them.  All  they  want,  says  the  old  Grua- 
gach, is  the  ring  which  he  once  lost,  and  which  is 
now  on  the  princess's  finger.  Of  course,  says  the 
king,  if  his  daughter  has  got  the  ring,  she  must  give 
it  to  its  owner.  But  the  ring,  overhearing  all  this, 
speaks  to  the  princess,  and  tells  her  what  to  do. 
She  gets  a  gallon  of  wheat  grains  and  three  gallons 
of  the  strongest  potheen  that  was  ever  brewed  in 
Ireland,  and  she  mixes  them  together  in  an  open 
barrel  before  the  fire.  Then  her  father  calls  her 
and  asks  for  the  ring ;  and  when  she  finds  that  her 
protests  are  of  no  avail,  and  she  must  give  it  up. 


A  Harvest  of  Irish  Folk-Lore,  331 

she  throws  it  into  the  fire.  "That  moment  the 
eleven  brothers  made  eleven  pairs  of  tongs  of  them- 
selves; their  father,  the  old  Gruagach,  was  the 
twelfth  pair.  The  twelve  jumped  into  the  fire  to 
know  in  what  spark  of  it  would  they  find  the  old 
fisherman's  son ;  and  they  were  a  long  time  work- 
ing and  searching  through  the  fire,  when  out  flew 
a  spark,  and  into  the  barrel.  The  twelve  made 
themselves  men,  turned  over  the  barrel,  and  spilled 
the  wheat  on  the  floor.  Then  in  a  twinkling  they 
were  twelve  cocks  strutting  around.  They  fell  to, 
and  picked  away  at  the  wheat,  to  know  which  one 
would  find  the  fisherman's  son.  Soon  one  dropped 
on  one  side,  and  a  second  on  the  opposite  side, 
until  all  twelve  were  lying  drunk  from  the  wheat." 

One  seems  to  see  the  gleam  in  the  corner  of  the 
eye  and  the  pucker  in  the  Gaelic  visage  of  the  old 
narrator.  To  be  sure,  it  was  the  wheat.  It  could  n't 
have  been  the  mountain  dew ;  it  never  is.  Well, 
when  things  had  come  to  this  pass,  the  spark  that 
was  the  fisherman's  son  just  turned  into  a  fox, 
and  with  one  smart  bite  he  took  the  head  off  the 
old  Gruagach,  and  the  eleven  other  boozy  cocks  he 
finished  with  eleven  other  bites.  Then  he  made 
himself  the  handsomest  man  in  Erin,  and  married 
the  princess  and  succeeded  to  the  crown. 

There  is  a  breezy  freshness  about  these  tales, 


332  A  Century  of  Science 

which  will  make  the  book  a  welcome  addition  to 
young  people's  libraries.  It  is  safe  to  predict  for 
it  an  enviable  success.  In  the  next  edition  there 
ought  to  be  an  index,  and  we  wish  the  author  need 
not  feel  it  necessary  to  be  so  sparing  with  his  own 
notes  and  comments.  His  brief  Introduction  is  so 
charming,  from  its  weight  of  sense  and  beauty  of 
expression,  that  one  would  gladly  hear  more  from 
the  author  himself.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
book  lately  published  is  the  forerunner  of  many. 
August,  1890. 


XII 

GUESSING  AT  HALF  AND  MULTIPLYING 
BY  TWO 

"  The  small  philosopher  is  a  great  character  in 
New  England.  His  fundamental  rule  of  logical 
procedure  is  to  guess  at  the  half  and  multiply  by 
two.  [Applause.]  "  ^  It  is  [in  1880]  only  two 
or  three  years  since  the  philosopher  from  whom 
this  text  is  quoted  was  himself  a  gTeat  character 
in  New  England,  inasmuch  as  he  could  give  a  lec- 
ture once  every  week,  in  one  of  the  largest  halls  of 
New  England's  principal  city,  and  could  entertain 
his  audience  of  two  or  three  thousand  people  with 
discussions  of  the  most  vast  and  abstruse  themes 
of  science  and  metaphysics.  The  success  with 
which  he  entertained  his  audience  is  carefully 
chronicled  for  us  in  the  volumes  made  up  from  the 
reports  of  his  lectures,  in  which  parenthetical  notes 

^  Cook's  Boston  Monday  Lectures:  Biology,  p.  51.  After  some 
hesitation  I  have  decided  to  reprint  this  paper,  because  the  "  fun- 
damental rule  of  procedure  "  here  criticised  is  a  favourite  one 
with  other  controversialists  than  Mr.  Cook,  and  it  is  one  against 
which  readers  sometimes  need  to  be  put  on  their  guard. 


334  A  Century  of  Science 

of  "  laughter,"  "  applause,"  or  "  sensation  "  occur 
as  frequently  as  in  ordinary  newspaper  reports  of 
stump  speeches  or  humorous  convivial  harangues. 
As  a  social  phenomenon  this  career  of  the  Eev. 
Joseph  Cook  possesses  considerable  interest, — 
enough,  at  any  rate,  to  justify  a  brief  inquiry  as  to 
his  "  fundamental  rule  of  procedure." 

Among  the  wise  and  witty  sayings  of  the  an- 
cients with  which  our  children  are  puzzled  and  edi- 
fied in  the  first  dozen  pages  of  the  Greek  Eeader, 
there  is  a  caustic  remark  attributed  to  Phokion,  on 
the  occasion  of  being  very  loudly  applauded  by  the 
populace.  "  Dear  me,"  said  the  old  statesman, 
"  can  it  be  that  I  have  been  making  a  fool  of  my- 
self ?  "  So,  when  three  thousand  people  are  made 
to  laugh  and  clap  their  hands  over  statements  about 
the  origin  of  species  or  the  anatomy  of  the  nervous 
system,  the  first  impulse  of  any  scientific  inquirer 
of  ordinary  sagacity  and  experience  is  to  ask  in 
what  meretricious  fashion  these  sober  topics  can 
have  been  treated,  in  order  to  have  produced  such 
a  result.  The  inference  may  be  cynical,  but  is 
none  the  less  likely  to  be  sound.  In  the  present 
case,  one  does  not  need  to  read  far  in  the  published 
reports  of  these  lectures  to  cee  that  the  fundamental 
rule  of  procedure  is  something  very  different  from 
any  of  the  rules  by  which  truth  is  wooed  and  won 


Guessing  at  Half  and  Multiplying  hy  Two  335 

by  scientific  inquirers.  Among  Mill's  comprehen- 
sive canons  of  logical  method  one  might  search 
in  vain  for  a  specimen  of  the  method  employed 
by  Mr.  Cook.  Of  the  temper  of  mind,  indeed,  in 
which  scientific  inquiries  are  conducted,  he  has  no 
more  conception  than  Laura  Bridgman  could  have 
of  Pompeian  red  or  a  chord  of  the  minor  ninth. 
The  process  of  holding  one's  judgment  in  suspense 
over  a  complicated  problem,  of  patiently  gathering 
and  weighing  the  evidence  on  either  side,  of  sub- 
jecting one's  own  first-formed  hypotheses  to  re- 
peated verification,  of  clearly  comprehending  and 
fairly  stating  opposing  views,  of  setting  forth  one's 
conclusions  at  last,  guardedly  and  with  a  distinct 
consciousness  of  the  conditions  under  which  they 
are  tenable,  —  all  this  sort  of  thing  is  quite  foreign 
to  Mr.  Cook's  nature. 

To  him  a  scientific  thesis  is  simply  a  statement 
over  which  it  is  possible  to  get  up  a  fight.  The 
gamecock  is  his  totem ;  to  him  the  bones  of  the 
vertebrate  subkingdom  are  only  so  many  bones  of 
contention,  and  the  sponge  is  interesting  chiefly  as 
an  emblem  which  is  never,  on  any  account,  to  be 
thrown  up.  He  talks  accordingly  of  scientific  men 
lying  in  wait  for  Mr.  Darwin,  ready  to  pounce  on 
him  like  a  tiger  on  its  prey ;  he  is  very  fond  of  ex- 
hibiting what  he  calls  the  *'  strategic  point "  of  a 


336  A  Century  of  Science 

scientific  book  or  theory ;  and  altogether  his  atti- 
tude is  bellicose  to  a  degree  that  is  as  unbecoming 
in  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  as  it  is  out  of  place  in 
a  discussion  of  scientific  questions.  His  favourite 
method  of  dealing  with  a  scientific  writer  is  to 
quote  from  him  all  sorts  of  detached  statements 
and  inferences,  and,  without  the  slightest  regard 
to  the  writer's  general  system  of  opinions  or  habits 
of  thought,  to  praise  or  vituperate  the  detached 
statements  according  to  some  principle  which  it  is 
not  always  easy  for  the  reader  to  discover,  but 
which  has  always  doubtless  some  reference  to  their 
supposed  bearings  upon  the  peculiar  kind  of  ortho- 
doxy of  which  Mr.  Cook  appears  as  the  champion. 
There  are  some  writers  whom  he  thinks  it  neces- 
sary always  to  scold  or  vilify,  no  matter  what  they 
say.  If  they  happen  to  say  something  which  ought 
to  be  quite  satisfactory  to  any  reasonable  person  of 
''  orthodox  "  opinions,  Mr.  Cook  either  accuses  them 
of  insincerity  or  represents  them  as  making  "  con- 
cessions." 

This  last  device,  I  am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  add, 
is  not  an  imcommon  one  with  theological  contro- 
versialists, when  their  zeal  runs  away  with  them. 
When  a  man  makes  a  statement  which  expresses 
his  deepest  convictions,  there  is  no  easier  way  of 
seeming  to  knock  away  the  platform  on  which  he 


Guessing  at  Half  and  Multiplying  hy  Two  337 

stands  than  to  quote  his  statement,  and  describe  it 
as  something  which  he  has  reluctantly  "  conceded." 
In  dealing  with  the  principal  writers  on  evolution, 
Mr.  Cook  is  continually  found  resorting  to  this 
cheap  device.  For  example,  when  Professor  Tyn- 
dall  declares  that  "  if  a  right-hand  spiral  move- 
ment of  the  particles  of  the  brain  could  be  shown 
to  occur  in  love,  and  a  left-hand  spiral  movement 
in  hate,  we  should  be  as  far  off  as  ever  from  un- 
derstanding the  connection  of  this  physical  motion 
with  the  spiritual  manifestations,"  —  when  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall  declares  this,  he  simply  asserts 
what  is  a  cardinal  proposition  with  the  group  of 
English  philosophers  to  which  he  belongs.  With 
Professor  Huxley,  as  well  as  with  Mr.  Spencer,  it 
is  a  fundamental  proposition  that  psychical  phe- 
nomena cannot  possibly  be  interpreted  in  terms  of 
matter  and  motion,  and  this  proposition  they  have 
at  various  times  set  forth  and  defended.  In  the 
chapter  on  Matter  and  Spirit,  in  my  work  on 
"Cosmic  Philosophy,"  I  have  fully  expounded 
this  point,  and  have  further  illustrated  it  in 
"The  Unseen  World."  With  the  conclusions 
there  set  forth  the  remark  of  Professor  Tyndall 
thoroughly  agrees,  and  it  does  so  because  all  these 
expressions  of  opinion  and  all  these  arguments  are 
part  and  parcel  of  a  coherent  system  of  anti-mate- 


338  A  Century  of  Science 

rialistic  thought  adopted  ^  by  the  English  school 
of  evolutionists.  Yet  when  Mr.  Cook  quotes 
Professor  Tyndall's  remark,  he  does  it  in  this  wise : 
"  It  is  notorious  that  even  Tyndall  concedes,'"  etc., 
etc. 

By  proceeding  in  this  way,  Mr.  Cook  finds  it 
easy  to  make  out  a  formidable  array  of  what  he 
calls  "  the  concessions  of  evolutionists."  He  first 
gives  the  audience  a  crude  impression  of  some  soi*t 
of  theory  of  evolution,  such  as  no  scientific  thinker 
ever  dreamed  of;  or,  to  speak  more  accurately, 
he  plays  upon  the  crude  impression  already  half 
formed  in  the  average  mind  of  his  audience,  and 
which  he  evidently  shares  himself.  The  average 
notion  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  possessed  in 
common  by  an  audience  big  enough  to  fill  Tre- 
mont  Temple,  would  no  doubt  seem  to  Darwin  or 
to  Spencer  something  quite  fearful  and  wonderful. 
Playing  with  this  sort  of  crude  material,  Mr.  Cook 
puts  together  a  series  of  numbered  propositions, 
which  remind  one  of  those  interminable  auction 
catalogues  of  Walt  Whitman,  which  some  of  our 
British  cousins,  more  ardent  than  discriminating, 
mistake  for  a  truly  American  species  of  inspired 
verse.     In  this  long  catena  of  statements,  almost 

1  In  spite  of  an  occasional  slip  of  the  pen  which  may  seem  to 
imply  the  contrary.    See  above,  pp.  58-60. 


Guessing  at  Half  and  Multiplying  hy  Two  339 

everything  is  easily  seen  to  disagree  with  the  crude 
general  impression  to  which  the  speaker  appeals, 
and  almost  everything  is  accordingly  set  down  as 
a  "  concession."  And  as  the  audience  go  out  after 
the  lecture,  they  doubtless  ask  one  another,  in 
amazed  whispers,  how  it  is  that  sensible  men  who 
make  so  many  "  concessions  "  can  find  it  in  their 
hearts  to  maintain  the  doctrine  of  evolution  at  all ! 

Sometimes  Mr.  Cook  goes  even  farther  than 
this,  and,  in  the  very  act  of  quoting  an  author's  de- 
clared opinions,  expressly  refuses  to  give  him  credit 
for  them.  Thus  he  has  the  hardihood  to  say: 
"  Even  Herbert  Spencer,  who  would  he  very  glad 
to  prove  the  opposite^  says,  in  his  Biology,  '  The 
proximate  chemical  principles  or  chemical  units  — 
albumen,  fibrine,  gelatine,  or  the  hypothetical  pro- 
teine  substance  —  cannot  possess  the  property  of 
forming  the  endlessly  varied  structures  of  animal 
forms.'  "  Mr.  Cook  here  lays  claim  to  a  knowledge 
of  his  author's  innermost  thoughts  and  wishes 
which  is  quite  remarkable.  For  a  fit  parallel  one 
would  have  to  cite  the  instance  of  the  German  who 
flogged  his  son  for  profanity,  though  the  boy  had 
not  opened  his  mouth.  "  You  dinks  tamn,"  ex- 
claimed the  irate  father,  "  and  I  vips  you  for  dat !  " 

As   there  are    some   writers  whom  Mr.    Cook 

^  The  itaKcizing  is,  of  course,  mine,  both  here  and  below. 


340  A  Century  of  Science 

thinks  it  always  necessary  to  vituperate,  iio  matter 
what  they  say,  so  there  are  others  whom  he  finds  it 
convenient  to  quote,  as  foils  to  the  former,  and  to 
mention  with  praise  on  all  occasions,  though  it  is 
difficult  to  assign  the  reasons  for  this  preference, 
except  on  the  hypothesis  that  the  lecturer  has  an 
implicit  faith  in  the  simple  and  confiding  nature 
of  his  audience.  Before  giving  these  lectures  Mr. 
Cook  had  studied  awhile  in  Germany,  and  his 
citations  of  German  writers  show  how  far  he  deems 
it  safe  to  presume  on  New  England's  ignorance  of 
what  the  Fatherland  thinks.  It  is  nice  to  have 
such  a  learned  country  as  Germany  at  one's  dis- 
posal to  hurl  at  the  heads  of  people  whose  "  out- 
look in  philosophy  does  not  reach  beyond  the 
Straits  of  Dover ;  "  it  saves  a  great  deal  of  trouble- 
some argument,  and  still  more  painful  examination 
of  facts.  This  English  opinion  is  all  very  well, 
you  know,  but  it  comes  from  a  philosopher  "  whose 
star  is  just  touching  the  western  pines,"  and  a  Ger- 
man professor  whom  I  am  about  to  quote,  whose 
book  I  "  hold  in  my  hand,"  and  "  whose  star  is  in 
the  ascendant,"  does  not  agree  with  it.  All  this 
is  extremely  neat  and  convincing,  apparently,  to 
the  crowd  in  Tremont  Temple.  With  all  Ger- 
many at  his  disposal,  however,  it  must  be  ac- 
knowledged that  our  lecturer  makes  a  very  sparing 


Guessing  at  Half  and  Multiplying  hy  Two  341 

use  of  his  resources.  He  quotes  Helmholtz  and 
Wundt  every  now  and  then  with  warm  approval, 
though  wherein  they  should  be  found  any  more  ac- 
ceptable to  the  orthodox  world  than  Tyndall  and 
Spencer  it  is  not  easy  to  see,  save  that  the  ill 
repute  of  German  free  thinkers  takes  somewhat 
longer  to  get  diffused  in  New  England  than  the 
iU  repute  of  English  free  thinkers. 

Then,  among  these  Germans  who  are  to  set  the 
English-speaking  world  aright  we  have  Delitzsch! 
To  speak  of  Wundt  and  Delitzsch  is  as  if  one 
were  to  bracket  together  John  Stuart  Mill  and 
Frederick  Denison  Maurice.  And  then  comes  the 
admirable  Lotze,  whom  Mr.  Cook  is  continuaUy 
setting  off  as  a  foil  to  Herbert  Spencer.  On  page 
179  of  the  lectures  on  "  Heredity  "  he  enumerates, 
with  emphasis,  those  opinions  of  Lotze  which  he 
deems  of  especial  importance  with  regard  to  the  re- 
lations between  matter  and  mind,  and  then  proceeds 
to  deprecate  the  *'  thunder  "  which  he  presumes  he 
has  evoked  "  from  all  quarters  of  the  Spencerian 
sky."  But,  considering  that  the  propositions  he 
quotes  from  Lotze  express  the  very  views  of  Her- 
bert Spencer,  only  somewhat  inadequately  worded, 
it  would  seem  that  the  lecturer's  alarm  cannot  be 
very  real,  and  the  thunder  in  question  is  only  a 
kind  of  comic-opera  thunder  manufactured  behind 


342  A  Century  of  Science 

the  curtain  for  the  benefit  of  the  acquiescent  audi- 
ence. For  example,  the  fourth  proposition  quoted 
with  approval  from  Lotze  reads  thus  :  "  Physical 
phenomena  point  to  an  underlying  being  to  which 
they  belong,  but  do  not  determine  whether  that 
being  is  material  or  immaterial."  Now  this  is 
Spencerism,  pure  and  simple,  and  it  is  a  crucial  pro- 
position, too,  pointing  out  the  drift  of  the  whole 
philosophy  before  which  it  is  set  up.  The  fact 
that  Mr.  Cook  adopts  such  an  opinion  when  stated 
by  Lotze,  but  vituperates  the  same  opinion  when 
stated  by  Spencer,  reveals  to  us,  with  a  pungent 
though  not  wholly  delicious  flavour,  the  "  true  in- 
wardness" of  his  fundamental  method  of  proce- 
dure. 

That  method,  it  must  be  acknowledged  with  due 
regard  to  the  hon  mot  of  the  old  Greek  states- 
man, is  a  method  well  adapted  to  concihate  the 
favour  of  an  immense  audience,  —  even  in  Boston. 
We  are  all  descended  from  fighting  ancestors,  and 
many  of  us,  who  care  little  for  the  disinterested 
discussion  of  scientific  theories,  still  like  to  see  a 
man  knocked  down  or  impaled,  provided  the  knock- 
ing down  be  done  with  a  syllogistic  club,  or  the 
impaling  be  restricted  to  such  a  hard  substance  as 
is  afforded  by  the  horns  of  a  dilemma.  It  satis- 
our  combative  instincts,  without  shocking  our 


Guessing  at  Half  and  Multiplying  hyTwo    343 

physical  sympathies  or  making  any  great  demand 
on  our  keener  thinking  powers,  which  most  people 
do  most  of  all  disUke  to  be  called  upon  to  exercise. 
To  this  kind  of  feeling  Mr.  Cook's  lectures  appeal, 
and  the  peculiar  character  of  his  success  seems  to 
show  that  he  knows  well  how  to  deal  with  it.  In 
a  moment  of  winning  frankness  he  exclaims :  "  Do' 
you  suppose  that  I  think  that  this  audience  can  be 
cheated  f  I  do  not  know  where  in  America  there 
is  another  weekly  audience  with  as  many  brains  in 
it ;  at  least,  I  do  not  know  where^  in  New  England 
I  should  be  so  likely  to  be  tripped  up,  if  I  were  to 
make  an  incorrect  statement,  as  here."  ^  After 
this  coaxing  little  dose,  Mr.  Cook  proceeds  to  show 
his  respect  for  the  learning  of  his  audience  in 
some  remarks  on  bathybius,  which,  as  he  conde- 
scendingly explains,  is  a  name  derived  from  two 
Greek  words,  meaning  deep  and  sea  /  /  The  pro- 
found knowledge  of  Greek  thus  exhibited  is  quite 
equalled  by  his  account  of  bathybius  from  the 
zoological  point  of  view.  He  begins  by  telling  his 
hearers  that,  in  a  paper  published  in  the  "  Micro- 
scopical Journal "  in  1868,  Professor  Huxley  "  an- 
nounced his  belief  that  the  gelatinous  substance 
found  in  the  ooze  of  the  beds  of  the  deep  seas  is  a 
sheet  of  living  matter  extending  around  the  globe." 

1  Biology,  p.  67. 


344  A  Century  of  Science 

Furthermore,  of  "  this  amazingly  strategic  [! !]  and 
haughtily  trumpeted  substance  .  .  .  Huxley  as- 
sumed that  it  was  in  the  past,  and  would  be  in  the 
future,  the  progenitor  of  all  the  life  on  the  planet." 
Now  it  is  not  true  that,  in  the  paper  referred  to, 
Huxley  annomices  any  such  belief  or  makes  any 
such  assumption  as  is  here  ascribed  to  him ;  but  we 
shall  see,  in  a  moment,  that  Mr.  Cook's  system  of 
quotation  is  pecuKar  in  enabling  him  to  extract 
from  the  text  of  an  author  any  meaning  whatever 
that  may  happen  to  suit  his  purposes.  This  ingen- 
ious garbling  enables  the  lecturer  to  come  in  with 
telling  effect  at  the  close  of  his  third  lecture,  and 
earn  an  ignoble  round  of  applause  by  holding  up 
the  current  number  of  the  ''  American  Journal  of 
Science  and  Arts  "(which  he  would  appear  to  have 
picked  up  at  a  bookstall  on  his  way  to  the  lecture 
room)  and  citing  from  it,  as  the  fifty-first  and  clos- 
ing "  concession  "  of  evolutionists,  "  that  bathybius 
has  been  discovered  in  1875,  by  the  ship  Challenger, 
to  be  —  hear,  O  heavens  !  and  give  ear,  O  earth  !  — 
sulphate  of  lime  ;  and  that  when  dissolved  it  crys- 
tallizes as  gjrpsum.  [Applause.]  "  This  is  what 
Mr.  Cook  calls  striking,  with  the  "  latest  scientific 
intelligence,"  at  the  "  bottom  stem  "  of  the  great 
tree  of  evolution.  The  "latest  scientific  intelli- 
gence," with  him,  means  the  last  book  or  article 


Guessing  at  Half  and  Multiplying  hy  Two  345 

wMch  he  has  glanced  over  without  comprehending 
its  import,  but  from  which  he  has  contrived  to 
glean  some  statement  calculated  to  edify  his  audi- 
ence and  scatter  the  hosts  of  Midian.  In  point  of 
fact,  the  identification  of  bathybius  with  sulphate 
of  lime  was  set  down  by  Sir  Wy ville  Thomson  only 
as  a  suspicion,  to  which  Huxley,  like  a  true  man  of 
science,  at  once  accorded  all  possible  weight,  while 
leaving  the  question  open  for  further  discussion. 
Only  a  mountebank,  dealing  with  an  audience  upon 
whose  ignorance  of  the  subject  he  might  safely 
rely,  could  pretend  to  suppose  that  the  fate  of  the 
doctrine  of  evolution  was  in  any  way  involved  in 
the  question  as  to  the  organic  nature  of  bathybius. 
The  amazing  strategy  was  all  Mr.  Cook's  own, 
and  the  haughty  trumpeting  appears  to  have  been 
chiefly  done  with  his  own  very  brazen  instrument. 
I  said  a  moment  ago  that  Mr.  Cook's  system  of 
quotation  is  peculiar.  The  following  instance  is 
so  good  that  it  will  bear  citing  at  some  length. 
According  to  Mr.  Cook,  Professor  Huxley  says,  in 
his  article  on  Biology  in  the  ninth  edition  of  the 
"  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  :  "  "  Throughout  ah 
most  the  whole  series  of  living  beings,  we  find 
agamogenesis,  or  not-sexual  generations^  After 
a  pause,  Mr.  Cook  proceeded  in  a  lower  voice : 
"When  the  topic  of  the  origin  of  the  Hfe  of  our 


346  A  Century  of  Science 

Lord  on  the  earth  is  approached  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  microscope,  some  men,  who  know  not 
what  the  holy  of  hoHes  in  physical  and  religious 
science  is,  say  that  we  have  no  example  of  the 
origin  of  life  without  two  parents."  He  went  on 
to  cite  the  familiar  instances  of  parthenogenesis  in 
bees  and  silk  moths,  and  then  proceeded  as  follows : 
"  Take  up  your  Mivart,  your  Lyell,  your  Owen,  and 
you  will  read  [where  ?  ]  this  same  important  fact 
which  Huxley  here  asserts,  when  he  says  that  the 
law  that  perfect  individuals  may  be  virginally  born 
extends  to  the  higher  forms  of  life.  I  am  in  the  pre- 
sence of  Almighty  God  ;  and  yet,  when  a  great  soul 
like  that  tender  spirit  of  our  sainted  Lincoln,  in  his 
early  days,  with  little  knowledge  but  with  gTeat 
thoughtfulness,  was  troubled  by  this  difficulty,  and 
almost  thrown  into  infidelity  by  not  knowing  that 
the  law  that  there  must  be  two  parents  is  not  univer- 
sal, I  am  willing  to  allude,  even  in  such  a  presence 
as  this,  to  the  latest  science  concerning  miraculous 
conception.      [Sensation.]  " 

The  vulgarity  of  this  rhetoric  is  as  glaring  as  its 
absurdity.  All  that  concerns  me  now,  however, 
is  to  point  out  the  Brobdignagian  dimensions  of  the 
misstatement  of  facts.  Let  us  look  back  for  a 
moment  at  the  italicized  quotation  from  Huxley, 
upon  which  Mr.  Cook  builds  up  the  wondrous  asser- 


Guessing  at  Half  and  Multiplying  hy  Two  347 

tion  "  that  the  law  that  perfect  individuals  may  be 
virginally  born  extends  to  the  higher  forms  of 
life."  Then  let  us  turn  to  Huxley's  article  and 
see  what  he  really  does  say. 

Treating  of  the  whole  subject  of  agamogenesis 
in  the  widest  possible  way  by  including  it  under 
the  more  general  process  of  cell-multiplication, 
Huxley  says  :  "  Common  as  the  process  is  in  plants 
and  in  the  lower  animals,  it  becomes  rare  among 
the  higher  animals.  In  these,  the  reproduction 
of  the  whole  organism  from  a  part,  in  the  way  in- 
dicated above,  ceases.  At  most  we  find  that  the 
cells  at  the  end  of  an  amputated  portion  of  the 
organism  are  capable  of  reproducing  the  lost  part, 
and  in  the  very  highest  animals  even  this  power 
vanishes  in  the  adult.  .  .  .  Throughout  almost 
the  whole  series  of  living  beings,  however,  we  find 
concurrently  with  the  process  of  agamogenesis,  or 
asexual  generation,  another  method  of  generation, 
in  which  the  development  of  the  germ  into  an  or- 
ganism resembling  the  parent  depends  on  an  influ- 
ence exerted  by  living  matter  different  from  the 
germ.    This  is  gamogenesis,  or  sexual  generation."  ^ 

Comparing  the  italicized  passage  here  with  Mr. 
Cook's  italicized  quotation,  we  see  vividly  illus- 
trated   the    fundamental    method    of    procedure 

1  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  niAth  edition,  "  Biology,"  p.  686. 


348  A  Century  of  Science 

by  which  the  "  Monday  Lectureship  "  jumps  from 
a  statement  about  the  reproduction  of  a  lobster's 
claw  to  the  inference  that  a  man  may  be  born 
without  a  father.  It  reminds  one  of  that  worthy 
clergyman  who  introduced  a  scathing  sermon  on  a 
new-fangled  variety  of  ladies'  headdress  by  the 
appropriate  text,  "  Top-knot  come  down  !  "  On 
being  reminded  by  one  of  his  deacons  that  the  full 
verse  seemed  to  read,  "  Let  him  that  is  upon  the 
housetop  not  come  do>vn,"  the  pastor  boldly  justi- 
fied his  abridgment  on  the  ground  that  any  par- 
ticular collocation  of  words  in  Scripture  is  as  au- 
thoritative as  any  other,  since  all  parts  of  the  Bible 
are  equally  inspired.  Perhaps  there  are  some  who 
would  justify  Mr.  Cook's  peculiar  principle  of 
abridgment  on  the  familiar  ground  that  the  end 
sanctifies  the  means,  and  that  if  a  statement  seems 
helpful  to  "  the  truth  "  in  general,  it  is  no  matter 
whether  the  statement  itself  is  true  or  not. 

Enough  of  this.  If  we  were  to  go  through  with 
these  volumes  in  detail,  we  should  find  little  else 
but  misrepresentations  of  facts,  misconceptions  of 
principles,  and  floods  of  tawdry  rhetoric,  of  which 
the  specimens  here  quoted  are  quite  suflicient  to 
illustrate  the  lecturer's  "  fundamental  method  of 
procedure."  If  I  have  treated  him  somewhat 
lightly,  it  is  because  there  is  nothing  in  his  matter 


Guessing  at  Half  and  Multiplying  hy  Two  349 

or  in  his  manner  that  would  justify,  or  even  excuse, 
a  more  serious  style  of  treatment.  The  only  aspect 
of  his  career  which  affords  matter  for  grave  reflec- 
tion is  the  ease  with  which  he  succeeded  for  a  mo- 
ment in  imposing  on  the  credulity  and  in  appealing 
to  the  prejudices  of  his  public.  The  eagerness 
with  which  the  orthodox  world  hailed  the  appear- 
ance of  this  new  champion  could  not  but  remind 
one,  with  sad  emphasis,  of  Oxenstjern's  famous  re- 
mark :  "  Quam  parva  sapientia  mimdus  regitur !  " 
It  is  comforting  to  remember  that  one  of  the  world's 
greatest  naturalists,  Asa  Gray,  —  whose  orthodoxy 
is  as  unimpeachable  as  his  science,  —  very  promptly 
declared  in  print  that  such  championship  is  some- 
thing of  which  orthodoxy  has  no  reason  to  feel 
proud. 

December,  1880. 


XIII 

FORTY  YEARS  OF  BACON-SHAKESPEARE 
FOLLY  1 

Some  time  ago,  while  I  happened  to  be  looking 
over  a  wheelbarrow-load  of  rubbish  written  to 
prove  that  such  plays  as  "  King  Lear  "  and  "  The 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  "  emanated  from  one  of 
the  least  poetical  and  least  humorous  minds  of  mod- 
ern times,  I  was  reminded  of  a  story  which  I  heard 
when  a  boy.  I  forget  whether  it  was  some  whim- 
sical man  of  letters  like  Charles  Lamb,  or  some 
such  professional  wag  as  Theodore  Hook,  who  took 
it  into  his  head  one  day  to  stand  still  on  a  London 
street,  with  face  turned  upward,  gazing  into  the 
sky.  Thereupon  the  next  person  who  came  that 
way  forthwith  stopped  and  did  hkewise,  and  then 
the  next,  and  the  next,  until  the  road  was  blocked 
by  a  dense  crowd  of  men  and  women,  all  standing 
as  if  rooted  in  the  ground,  and  with  solemn  sky- 
ward stare.     The  enchantment  was  at  last  broken 

1  This  article  was  published  in  the  fortieth-anniversary  num- 
ber of  The  Atlantic  Monthly^  November,  1897. 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  351 

when  some  one  asked  what  they  were  looking  at, 
and  nobody  could  tell.  It  was  simply  an  instance 
of  a  certain  remnant  of  primitive  gregariousness  of 
action  on  the  part  of  human  beings,  which  exhibits 
itself  from  time  to  time  in  sundry  queer  fashions 
and  fads. 

So  when  Miss  Delia  Bacon,  in  the  year  which 
saw  the  beginning  of  "  The  Atlantic  Monthly," 
published  a  book  purporting  to  unfold  the  "  philo- 
sophy "  of  Shakespeare's  dramas,  it  was  not  long 
before  other  persons  began  staring  intently  into 
the  silliest  mare's  nest  ever  devised  by  human  dul- 
ness ;  and  the  fruits  of  so  much  staring  have  ap- 
peared in  divers  eccentric  volumes,  of  which  more 
specific  mention  will  presently  be  made.  Neither 
in  number  nor  in  quality  are  they  such  as  to  in- 
dicate that  the  Bacon  -  Shakespeare  folly  has  yet 
become  fashionable,  and  we  shall  presently  observe 
in  it  marked  suicidal  tendencies  which  are  likely 
to  prevent  its  ever  becoming  so;  but  there  are 
enough  of  such  volumes  to  illustrate  the  point  of 
my  anecdote. 

Another  fad,  once  really  fashionable,  and  in  de- 
fence of  which  some  plausible  arguments  could  be 
urged,  was  the  Wolfian  theory  of  the  Homeric 
poems,  which  dazzled  so  many  of  our  grandparents. 
It  is  worth  our  while  to  mention  it  here  by  way  of 


352  A  Century  of  Science 

prelude.  The  theory  that  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey- 
are  mere  aggregations  of  popular  ballads,  collected 
and  arranged  in  the  time  of  Pisistratus,  was  per- 
haps originally  suggested  by  the  philosopher  Vico, 
but  first  attracted  general  attention  in  1795,  when 
set  forth  by  Friedrich  August  Wolf,  one  of  the 
most  learned  and  brilliant  of  modern  scholars. 
Thus  eminently  respectable  in  its  parentage  and 
quite  reasonable  on  the  surface,  this  ballad  theory 
came  to  be  widely  fashionable ;  forty  years  ago  it 
was  accepted  by  many  able  scholars,  though  usu- 
ally with  large  modifications. 

The  Wolfians  urged  that  we  know  absolutely 
nothing  about  the  man  Homer,  not  even  when  or 
where  he  lived.  His  existence  is  merely  matter  of 
tradition,  or  of  inference  from  the  existence  of  the 
poems.  But  as  the  poems  know  nothing  of  Do- 
rians in  Peloponnesus,  their  date  can  hardly  be 
so  late  as  1100  b.  c.  What  happened,  then,  when 
"an  edition  of  Homer"  was  made  at  Athens, 
about  530  B.  c,  by  Pisistratus,  or  under  his  orders  ? 
Did  the  editor  simply  edit  two  great  poems  already 
six  centuries  old,  or  did  he  make  up  two  poems 
by  piecing  together  a  miscellaneous  lot  of  ancient 
ballads  ?  Wolf  maintained  the  latter  alternative, 
chiefly  because  of  the  alleged  impossibility  of  com- 
posing and   preserving    such   long  poems  in  the 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  353 

alleged  absence  of  the  art  of  writing.  Having 
thus  made  a  plausible  start,  the  Wolfians  pro- 
ceeded to  pick  the  poems  to  pieces,  and  to  prove 
by  "  internal  evidence "  that  there  was  nothing 
like  "  unity  of  design "  in  them,  etc. ;  and  so  it 
went  on,  till  poor  old  Homer  was  relegated  to  the 
world  of  myth.  As  a  schoolboy  I  used  to  hear  the 
belief  in  the  existence  of  such  a  poet  derided  as 
"  uncritical "  and  "  unscholarly." 

In  spite  of  these  terrifying  epithets,  the  ballad 
theory  never  made  any  impression  upon  me ;  for  it 
seemed  to  ignore  the  most  conspicuous  and  vital 
fact  about  the  poems,  namely,  the  style^  the  noble, 
rapid,  simple,  vivid,  supremely  poetical  style,  — 
a  style  as  individual  and  unapproachable  as  that 
of  Dante  or  Keats.  For  an  excellent  character- 
ization of  it,  read  Matthew  Arnold's  charming 
essays  "  On  Translating  Homer."  The  style  is  the 
man,  and  to  suppose  that  this  Homeric  style  ever 
came  from  a  democratic  multitude  of  minds,  or 
from  anything  save  one  of  those  supremely  en- 
dowed individual  natures  such  as  get  born  once  or 
twice  in  a  millennium,  is  simply  to  suppose  a  psy- 
chological impossibility.  I  remember  once  talking 
about  this  with  George  Eliot,  who  had  lately  been 
reading  Frederick  Paley's  ingenious  restatement  of 
the  ballad  theory,  and  was  captivated  by  its  Inge- 


354  A  Century  of  Science 

nuity.  I  told  her  I  did  not  wonder  that  old  dry- 
asdust  philologists  should  hold  such  views,  but  I 
was  indeed  surprised  to  find  such  a  literary  artist 
as  herself  ignoring  the  impassable  gulf  between 
Homer's  language  and  that  which  any  ballad  the- 
ory necessarily  implies.  She  had  no  answer  for 
this  except  to  say  that  she  should  have  supposed 
an  evolutionist  like  me  would  prefer  to  regard  the 
Homeric  poems  as  gradually  evolved  rather  than 
suddenly  created !  A  retort  so  clever  and  amiable 
most  surely  entitled  her  to  the  woman's  privilege 
of  the  last  word. 

The  Wolfian  theory  may  now  be  regarded  as  a 
thing  of  the  past ;  it  has  had  its  day  and  been 
flung  aside.  If  Wolf  himself  were  living,  he  would 
be  the  first  to  laugh  at  it.  Its  original  prop  has 
been  knocked  away,  since  it  has  become  pretty 
clear  that  the  art  of  writing  was  practised  about 
the  shores  of  the  oEgean  Sea  long  before  1100 
B.  c.  Even  Wolf  would  now  admit  that  it  might 
have  been  a  real  letter  that  Bellerophon  carried 
to  the  father  of  Anteia.^  All  attempts  to  show 
a  lack  of  unity  in  the  design  of  the  IHad  and  the 
Odyssey  have  failed  irretrievably,  and  the  dis- 
cussion has  served  only  to  make  more  and  more 
unmistakable  the  work  of  the  mighty  master.  The 
1  Iliad,  vi.  168. 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  855 

ballad  theory  is  dead  and  buried,  and  be  who  would 
read  its  obituary  may  find  keen  pleasure,  as  well 
as  many  a  wholesome  lesson  in  sound  criticism,  in 
the  sensible  and  brilliant  book  by  Andrew  Lang 
on  "  Homer  and  the  Epic." 

The  Bacon-Shakespeare  folly  has  never  been 
forth  by  scholars  of  commanding  authority, 
WoM  and  Lachmann,  or  Niese  and  Wila- 
Moellendorff.  Among  Delia  Bacon's  fol- 
.s  not  one  can  by  any  permissible  laxity  of 
speech  be  termed  a  scholar,  and  their  theory  has 
found  acceptance  with  very  few  persons.  Never- 
theless, it  illustrates  as  well  as  the  Wolfian  theory 
the  way  in  which  such  notions  grow.  It  starts 
from  a  false  premise,  hazily  conceived,  and  it  sub- 
sists upon  arguments  in  which  trivial  facts  are 
assigned  higher  value  than  facts  of  vital  impor- 
tance. Mr.  Lang's  remark  upon  certain  learned 
Homeric  commentators,  "  that  they  pore  over  the 
hyssop  on  the  wall,  but  are  blind  to  the  cedar 
of  Lebanon,"  applies  with  tenfold  force  to  the 
Bacon-Shakespeare  sciolists.  In  them  we  always 
miss  the  just  sense  of  proportion  which  is  one  of 
the  abiding  marks  of  sanity.  The  unfortunate 
lady  who  first  brought  their  theory  into  public 
notoriety  in  1857  was  then  sinking  under  the  cere- 
bral disease  of  which  she  died  two  years  later,  and 


356  A  Century  of  Science 

her  imitators  have  been  chiefly  weak  minds  of  the 
sort  that  thrive  upon  paradox,  closely  akin  to  the 
circle-squarers  and  inventors  of  perpetual  tnotion. 
Underlying  all  the  absurdities,  however,  there  is 
something  that  deserves  attention.  Like  many 
other  morbid  phenomena,  the  Bacon-Shakespeare 
folly  has  its  natural  history  which  is  instructive. 
The  vagaries  of  Delia  Bacon  and  her  followers 
originated  in  a  group  of  conditions  which  admit  of 
being  specified  and  described,  and  which  the  histo- 
rian of  nineteenth-century  literature  will  need  to 
notice.  In  order  to  understand  the  natural  history 
of  the  affair,  it  is  necessary  to  examine  the  Delia 
Bacon  theory  at  greater  length  than  it  would  other- 
wise deserve.     Let  us  see  how  it  is  constructed. 

It  starts  with  a  syllogism,  of  which  the  major 
premise  is  that  the  dramas  ascribed  to  Shakespeare 
during  his  lifetime,  and  ever  since  believed  to  be 
his,  abound  in  evidences  of  extraordinary  book- 
learning.  The  minor  premise  is  that  William 
Shakespeare  of  Stratford-on-Avon  could  not  have 
acquired  or  possessed  so  much  book-learning.  The 
conclusion  is  that  he  could  not  have  written  those 
plays. 

The  question  then  arises,  Which  of  Shake- 
speare's contemporaries  had  enough  book-lore  to 
have  written  them  "*     No  doubt  Francis  Bacon  had 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  357 

enough.  The  conclusion  does  not  follow,  however, 
that  he  wrote  the  plays ;  for  there  were  other  con- 
temporaries with  learning  enough  and  to  spare,  as 
for  example  George  Chapman  and  Ben  Jonson. 
These  two  men,  to  judge  from  their  acknowledged 
works,  were  great  poets,  whereas  in  Bacon's  fifteen 
volumes  there  is  not  a  paragraph  which  betrays 
poetical  genius.  Why  not,  then,  ascribe  the  Shake- 
speare dramas  to  Chapman  or  Jonson  ?  Here  the 
Baconizers  endeavour  to  support  their  assumption 
by  calling  attention  to  similarities  in  thought  and 
phrase  between  Francis  Bacon  and  the  writer  of 
the  dramas.  Up  to  this  point  their  argument  con- 
sists of  deductions  from  assumed  premises;  here 
they  adduce  inductive  evidence,  such  as  it  is.  We 
shall  see  specimens  of  it  by  and  by.  At  present 
we  are  concerned  with  the  initial  syllogism. 

And  first,  as  to  the  major  premise,  it  must  be 
met  with  a  flat  denial.  The  Shakespeare  plays  do 
not  abound  with  evidences  of  scholarship  or  learn- 
ing of  the  sort  that  is  gathered  from  profound  and 
accurate  study  of  books.  It  is  precisely  in  this 
respect  that  they  are  conspicuously  different  from 
many  of  the  plays  contemporary  with  them,  and 
from  other  masterpieces  of  English  literature. 
Such  plays  as  Jonson's  "  Sejanus  "  and  "  Catiline  " 
are  the  work  of  a  scholar  deeply  indoctrinated  with 


360  A  Century  of  Science 

advantage  to  him ;  in  "  Troilus  and  Cressida  "  there 
is  a  freedom  of  treatment  hardly  possible  to  a  pro- 
fessional scholar.  It  is  because  of  this  freedom 
that  Shakespeare  reaches  a  far  wider  public  of 
readers  and  listeners  than  Milton  or  Dante,  whose 
vast  learning  makes  them  in  many  places  "  caviare 
to  the  general."  Book-lore  is  a  great  source  of 
power,  but  one  may  easily  be  hampered  by  it. 
What  we  forever  love  in  Homer  is  the  freshness 
that  comes  with  lack  of  it,  and  in  this  sort  of  fresh- 
ness Shakespeare  agrees  with  Homer  far  more  than 
with  the  learned  poets. 

It  is  not  for  a  moment  to  be  denied  that  Shake- 
speare's plays  exhibit  a  remarkable  wealth  of  varied 
knowledge.  The  writer  was  one  of  the  keenest 
observers  that  ever  lived.  In  the  woodland  or  on 
the  farm,  in  the  printing  shop  or  the  alehouse,  or 
up  and  down  the  street,  not  the  smallest  detail 
escaped  him.  Microscopic  accuracy,  curious  inter- 
est in  aU  things,  unlimited  power  of  assimilating 
knowledge,  are  everywhere  shown  in  the  plays. 
These  are  some  of  the  marks  of  what  we  call  genius^ 
—  something  that  we  are  far  from  comprehending, 
but  which  experience  has  shown  that  books  and 
universities  cannot  impart.  All  the  colleges  on 
earth  could  not  by  combined  eifort  make  the  kind 
of  man  we  call  a  genius,  but  such  a  man  may  at 


Hie  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  361 

any  moment  be  born  into  the  world,  and  it  is  as 
likely  to  be  in  a  peasant's  cottage  as  anywhere. 

There  is  nothing  in  which  men  differ  more  widely 
than  in  the  capacity  for  imbibing  and  assimilating 
knowledge.  The  capacity  is  often  exercised  uncon- 
sciously. When  my  eldest  son,  at  the  age  of  six, 
was  taught  to  read  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  of 
daily  instruction,  it  was  suddenly  discovered  that 
his  four-year-old  brother  also  could  read.  Nobody 
could  tell  how  it  happened.  Of  course  the  younger 
boy  must  have  taken  keen  notice  of  what  the  elder 
one  was  doing,  but  the  process  went  on  without 
attracting  attention  until  the  result  appeared. 

This  capacity  for  unconscious  learning  is  not  at 
all  uncommon.  It  is  possessed  to  some  extent  by 
everybody ;  but  a  very  high  degree  of  it  is  one  of 
the  marks  of  genius.  I  remember  one  evening, 
many  years  ago,  hearing  Herbert  Spencer  in  a 
friendly  discussion  regarding  certain  functions  of 
the  cerebellum.  Abstruse  points  of  comparative 
anatomy  and  questions  of  pathology  were  involved. 
Spencer's  three  antagonists  were  not  violently  op- 
posed to  him,  but  were  in  various  degrees  unready 
to  adopt  his  views.  The  three  were  :  Huxley,  one 
of  the  greatest  of  comparative  anatomists ;  Hugh- 
lings  Jackson,  a  very  eminent  authority  on  the 
pathology   of   the   nervous    system ;    and    George 


362  A  Century  of  Science 

Henry  Lewes,  who,  although  more  of  an  amateur 
in  such  matters,  had  nevertheless  devoted  years  of 
study  to  neural  physiology,  and  w^as  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  history  of  the  subject.  Spencer 
more  than  held  his  ground  against  the  others.  He 
met  fact  with  fact,  brought  up  points  in  anatomy 
the  significance  of  which  Huxley  confessed  that  he 
had  overlooked,  and  had  more  experiments  and 
clinical  cases  at  his  tongue's  end  than  Jackson 
could  muster.  It  was  quite  evident  that  he  knew 
all  they  knew  on  the  subject,  and  more  besides. 
Yet  Spencer  had  never  been  through  a  course  of 
"regular  training"  in  the  studies  concerned;  nor 
had  he  ever  studied  at  a  university,  or  even  at  a 
high  school.  Where  did  he  learn  the  wonderful 
mass  of  facts  which  he  poured  forth  that  evening  ? 
Whence  came  his  tremendous  grasp  upon  the  prin- 
ciples involved  ?  Probably  he  could  not  have  told 
you.  A  few  days  afterward  I  happened  to  be  talk- 
ing with  Spencer  about  history,  a  subject  of  which 
he  modestly  said  he  knew  but  little.  I  told  him  1 
had  often  been  struck  with  the  aptness  of  the  his- 
toric illustrations  cited  in  many  chapters  of  his 
"  Social  Statics,"  written  when  he  was  twenty-nine 
years  old.  The  references  were  not  only  always 
accurate,  but  they  showed  an  intelligence  and 
soundness    of  judgment  unattainable,    one   would 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  363 

think,  save  by  close  familiarity  with  history. 
Spencer  assured  me  that  he  had  never  read  ex- 
tensively in  history.  Whence,  then,  this  wealth 
of  knowledge,  —  not  smattering,  not  sciolism,  but 
solid,  well-digested  knowledge  ?  Really,  he  did  not 
know,  except  that  when  his  interest  was  aroused  in 
any  subject  he  was  keenly  alive  to  all  facts  bearing 
upon  it,  and  seemed  to  find  them  whichever  way 
he  turned.  When  I  mentioned  this  to  Lewes, 
while  recalling  the  discussion  on  the  cerebellum, 
he  exclaimed :  "  Oh,  you  can't  account  for  it  I  It 's 
his  genius.  Spencer  has  greater  instinctive  power 
of  observation  and  assimilation  than  any  man  since 
Shakespeare,  and  he  is  like  Shakespeare  for  hit- 
ting the  bull's-eye  every  time  he  fires.  As  for 
Darwin  and  Huxley,  we  can  follow  their  intellec- 
tual processes,  but  Spencer  is  above  and  beyond  all ; 
he  is  inspired  !  " 

Those  were  Lewes' s  exact  words,  and  they  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  me.  The  comparison  with 
Shakespeare  struck  me  as  a  happy  one,  and  I  can 
understand  both  Spencer  and  Shakespeare  the  bet- 
ter for  it.  Concerning  Spencer  one  circumstance 
may  be  observed.  Since  his  early  manhood  he  has 
lived  in  London,  and  has  had  for  his  daily  associ- 
ates men  of  vast  attainments  in  every  department 
of  science.     He  has  thus  had  rare  opportunities  for 


364  A  Century  of  Science 

absorbing  an  immense  fund  of  knowledge  uncon- 
sciously. 

It  is  evident  that  the  author  of  Shakespeare's 
plays  possessed  an  extraordinary  "  instinctive  power 
of  observation  and  assimilation."  There  was  no- 
thing strange  in  such  a  genius  growing  up  in  a 
small  Warwickshire  town.  The  difficulty  is  one 
which  the  Delia-Baconians  have  created  for  them- 
selves. As  it  is  their  chief  stock  in  trade,  they 
magnify  it  in  every  way  they  can  think  of.  Shake- 
speare's parents,  they  say,  were  illiterate,  and  he 
did  not  know  how  to  spell  his  own  name.  It  ap- 
pears as  Shagspere,  Shaxpur,  Shaxberd,  Chacsper, 
and  so  on  through  some  thirty  forms,  several  of 
which  William  Shakespeare  himself  used  indiffer- 
ently. The  implication  is  that  such  a  man  must 
have  been  shockingly  ignorant.  The  real  igno- 
rance, however,  is  on  the  part  of  those  who  use 
such  an  argument.  Apparently,  they  do  not  know 
that  in  Shakespeare's  time  such  laxity  in  spelling 
was  common  in  all  ranks  of  society  and  in  aU 
grades  of  culture.  The  name  of  Elizabeth's  great 
Lord  Treasurer,  Cecil,  and  his  title,  Burghley, 
were  both  spelled  in  half  a  dozen  ways.  The  name 
of  Raleigh  occurs  in  more  than  forty  different 
forms,  and  Sir  Walter,  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished men  of  his  time,  wrote  it  Rauley,  Raw- 


TTie  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  365 

leyghe,  Ealegh,  and  in  yet  other  ways.  The  talk 
of  the  Baconizers  on  this  point  is  simply  ludi- 
crous. 

Equally  silly  is  their  talk  about  the  dirty  streets 
of  Stratford.  They  seem  to  have  just  discovered 
that  Elizabeth's  England  was  a  badly  drained 
country,  with  heaps  of  garbage  in  the  streets. 
Shakespeare's  father,  they  tell  us,  was  a  butcher, 
and  evidently  from  a  butcher's  son,  living  in  an 
ill-swept  town,  and  careless  about  the  spelling  of 
his  name,  not  much  in  the  way  of  intellectual 
achievement  was  to  be  expected !  In  point  of  fact, 
Shakespeare's  parents  belonged  to  the  middle  class. 
His  father  owned  several  houses  in  Stratford  and 
two  or  three  farms  in  the  neighbourhood.  As  a 
farmer  in  those  days,  he  would  naturally  have  cat- 
tle slaughtered  on  his  premises  and  would  sell  wool 
off  the  backs  of  his  own  flocks,  whence  the  later 
tradition  of  his  having  been  butcher  and  wool 
dealer.  That  his  social  position  was  good  is  shown 
by  the  facts  that  he  was  chief  alderman  and  high 
baihff  of  Stratford,  and  justice  of  the  peace,  and 
was  styled  "  Master  John  Shakespeare,"  or  (as  we 
should  say)  "  Mr. ; "  whereas,  had  he  been  one  of 
the  common  folk,  his  style  had  been  "Goodman 
Shakespeare."  A  visit  to  his  home  in  Henley 
Street,  and  to  Anne  Hathaway's  cottage  at  Shot- 


366  A  Century  of  Science 

tery,  shows  that  the  two  families  were  in  eminently 
respectable  circmnstances.  The  son  of  the  high 
bailiff  would  see  the  best  people  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. There  was  in  the  town  a  remarkably  good 
free  grammar  school,  where  he  might  have  learned 
the"  small  Latin  and  less  Greek"  which  his  friend 
Ben  Jonson  assures  us  he  possessed.  This  expres- 
sion, by  the  way,  is  usually  misunderstood,  because 
people  do  not  pause  to  consider  it.  Coming  from 
Ben  Jonson,  I  should  say  that  "  small  Latin  and 
less  Greek "  might  fairly  describe  the  amount  of 
those  languages  ordinarily  possessed  by  a  member 
of  the  graduating  class  at  Harvard  in  good  stand- 
ing. It  can  hardly  imply  less  than  the  abihty  to 
read  Terence  at  sight,  and  perhaps  Euripides  less 
fluently.  The  author  of  the  plays,  with  his  unerr- 
ing accuracy  of  observation,  knows  Latin  enough 
at  least  to  use  the  Latin  part  of  English  most 
skilfully ;  at  the  same  time,  when  he  has  occasion 
to  use  Greek  authors,  such  as  Homer  or  Plutarch, 
he  usually  prefers  an  English  translation.  At  all 
events,  Jonson's  remark  informs  us  that  the  man 
whom  he  addresses  as  "  sweet  swan  of  Avon " 
knew  some  Latin  and  some  Greek,  —  a  conclusion 
which  is  so  distasteful  to  one  of  our  Baconizers, 
Mr.  Edwin  Reed,  that  he  will  not  admit  it.  Rather 
than  do  so,  he  has  the  assurance  to  ask  us  to  be- 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  367 

lieve  that  by  the  epithet  "  sweet  swan  of  Avon  " 
Jonson  really  meant  Francis  Bacon!  Dear  me, 
Mr.  Reed,  do  you  really  mean  it  ?  And  how  about 
the  editor  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  in  1647, 
when,  in  his  dedication  to  Shakespeare's  friend 
the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  he  speaks  of  "  Sweet  Swan 
of  Avon  Shakespear  "  ?  Was  he  too  a  participa- 
tor in  the  little  scheme  for  fooling  posterity?  Or 
was  he  one  of  those  who  were  fooled  ? 

Whether  Shakespeare  had  other  chances  for 
book-lore  than  those  which  the  grammar  school 
afforded,  whether  there  was  any  interesting  parson 
at  hand,  as  often  in  small  towns,  to  guide  and  stim- 
ulate his  unfolding  thoughts,  —  upon  such  points 
we  have  no  information.  But  there  were  things  to 
be  learned  in  the  country  town  quite  outside  of 
books  and  pedagogues.  There,  while  the  poet  lis- 
tened to  the  "  strain  of  strutting  chanticleer,"  and 
watched  the  "  sun-burn'd  sicklemen,  of  August 
weary,"  putting  on  their  rye-straw  hats  and  mak- 
ing holiday  with  rustic  nymphs,  he  could  rejoice  in 

"  Earth's  increase,  f  oison  plenty, 
Barns  and  garners  never  empty ; 
Vines  with  clust'ring  bunches  growing ; 
Plants  with  goodly  burthen  bowing ;  " 

there  he  could  see  the  "unbacked  colts"  prick 
their  ears,  advance  their  eyelids,  lift  up  their  noses, 


368  A  Century  of  Science 

as  if  they  smelt  music ;  there  he  knew,  doubtless, 
many  a  bank  where  the  wild  thyme  grew  and  on 
which  the  moonlight  sweetly  slept ;  there  he  watched 
the  coming  of  "  violets  dim,"  "pale  primroses," 
flower-de-luce,  carnations,  with  "  rosemary  and  rue  " 
to  keep  their  "  savour  aU  the  winter  long," 

"  When  icicles  hang  by  the  wall, 

And  Dick  the  shepherd  blows  his  nail, 
And  Tom  bears  logs  into  the  hall, 

And  milk  comes  frozen  home  in  pail." 

Such  lore  as  this  no  books  or  college  could  im- 
part. 

It  was  this  that  Milton  had  in  mind  when  he 
introduced  Shakespeare  and  Ben  Jonson  into  his 
poem  "L' Allegro."  Milton  was  in  his  thirtieth 
year  when  Jonson,  poet  laureate,  was  laid  to  rest 
in  Westminster  Abbey;  he  was  only  a  boy  of 
eight  years  when  Shakespeare  died,  but  the  beau- 
tiful  sonnet  written  fourteen  years  later  shows  how 
lovingly  he  studied  his  works :  — 

"  What  needs  my  Shakespeare,  for  his  hononred  bones,"  etc. 

The  poem  "  L' Allegro  "  and  its  fellow  "  II  Pense- 
roso  "  describe  the  delights  of  Milton's  life  at  his 
father's  country  house  near  Windsor  Castle.  He 
used  often  to  ride  into  London  to  hear  music  or 
pass  an  evening  at  the  theatre,  as  in  the  following 
lines :  — ' 


The  Bacon- Shahespeare  Folly  369 

"  Then  to  the  well-trod  stage  anon, 
If  Jonson's  learned  sock  be  on, 
Or  sweetest  Shakespeare,  fancy's  child, 
Warble  his  native  woodnotes  wild." 

This  accurate  and  liappy  contrast  exasperates  the 
Baconizers,  for  it  spoils  their  stock  in  trade,  and 
accordingly  they  try  their  best  to  assure  us  that 
Milton  did  not  know  what  he  was  writing  about. 
They  asseverate  with  vehemence  that  in  all  the 
seven-and-thirty  plays  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
native  woodnote  wild. 

But  before  leaving  the  contrast  we  may  pause 
for  a  moment  to  ask,  Where  did  Ben  Jonson  get 
his  learning?  He  was,  as  he  himself  tells  us, 
"  poorly  brought  up  "  by  his  stepfather,  a  brick- 
layer. He  went  to  Westminster  School,  where  he 
was  taught  by  Camden,  and  he  may  have  spent  a 
short  time  at  Cambridge,  though  this  is  doubtful. 
His  schooling  was  nipped  in  the  bud,  for  he  had  to 
go  home  and  lay  brick ;  and  when  he  found  such 
an  existence  insupportable  he  went  into  the  army 
and  fought  in  the  Netherlands.  At  about  the  age 
of  twenty  we  find  him  back  in  London,  and  there 
lose  sight  of  him  for  five  years,  when  aU  at  once 
his  great  comedy  "  Every  Man  in  his  Humour  "  is 
performed,  and  makes  him  famous.  Now,  in  such 
a  life,  when  did  Jonson  get  the  time  for  his  im- 
mense reading  and  his  finished  classical  scholar- 


370  A  Century  of  Science 

ship  ?  Reasoning  after  the  manner  of  the  Delia- 
Baconians,  we  may  safely  say  that  he  could  not 
possibly  have  accumulated  the  learning  which  is 
shown  in  his  plays  :  therefore  he  could  not  have 
written  those  plays;  therefore  Lord  Bacon  must 
have  written  them  I  There  are  daring  soarers  in 
the  empyrean  who  do  not  shrink  from  this  conclu- 
sion ;  a  doctor  in  Michigan,  named  Owen,  has  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet  to  prove,  among  other  things, 
that  Bacon  was  the  author  of  the  plays  which  were 
performed  and  printed  as  Jonson's. 

To  return  to  Shakespeare.  Somewhere  about 
1585,  when  he  was  one-and-twenty,  he  went  to 
London,  leaving  his  wife  and  three  young  children 
at  Stratford.  His  father  had  lost  money,  and  the 
fortunes  of  the  family  were  at  the  lowest  ebb.  In 
London  we  lose  sight  of  Shakespeare  for  a  while, 
just  as  we  lose  sight  of  Jonson,  until  literary  works 
appear.  The  work  first  published  is  "Venus  and 
Adonis,"  one  of  the  most  exquisite  pieces  of  dic- 
tion in  the  English  language.  It  was  dedicated  to 
Henry,  Earl  of  Southampton,  by  William  Shake- 
speare, whose  authorship  of  the  poem  is  asserted  as 
distinctly  as  the  title-page  of  "  David  Copperfield  " 
proclaims  that  novel  to  be  by  Charles  Dickens,  yet 
some  precious  critics  assure  us  that  Shakespeare 
"  could  not "  have  written  the  poem,  and  never 


The,  BacoTb-SJiahespeare  Folly  371 

knew  the  Earl  of  Southampton.  Some  years  ago, 
Mr.  Appleton  Morgan,  who  does  not  wish  to  be 
regarded  as  a  Baconizer,  published  an  essay  on  the 
Warwickshire  dialect,  in  whicH  he  maintained  that 
since  no  traces  of  that  kind  of  speech  occur  in 
"  Venus  and  Adonis,"  therefore  it  could  not  have 
been  written  by  a  young  man  fresh  from  a  small 
Warwickshire  town.  This  is  a  specimen  of  the 
loose  kind  of  criticism  which  prepares  soil  for 
Delia-Baconian  weeds  to  grow  in.  The  poem  was 
published  in  1593,  seven  or  eight  years  after 
Shakespeare's  coming  to  London  ;  and  we  are  asked 
to  believe  that  the  world's  greatest  genius,  one  of 
the  most  consummate  masters  of  speech  that  ever 
lived,  could  tarry  seven  years  in  the  city  without 
learning  how  to  write  what  Hosea  Biglow  calls 
"  citified  English  "  !  One  can  only  exclaim  with 
Gloster,  "  O  monstrous  fault,  to  harbour  such  a 
thought ! " 

In  those  years  Shakespeare  surely  learned  much 
else.  It  seems  clear  that  he  had  a  good  reading 
acquaintance  with  French  and  Italian,  though  he 
often  uses  translations,  as  for  instance  Florio's 
version  of  Montaigne.  In  estimating  what  Shake- 
speare "  must  have  "  known  or  "  could  not  have  " 
known,  one  needs  to  use  more  caution  than  some 
of   our   critics   display.      For    example,   in  "  The 


372  A  Century  of  Science 

Winter's  Tale  "  the  statue  of  Hermione  is  called 
"  a  piece  .  .  .  now  newly  performed  by  that  rare 
Italian  master,  Julio  Komano."  Now,  since  Ro- 
mano is  known  as  a  great  painter,  but  not  as  a 
sculptor,  this  has  been  cited  as  a  blunder  on 
Shakespeare's  part.  It  appears,  however,  that  the 
first  edition  of  Vasari's  "  Lives  of  the  Painters," 
published  in  1550  and  never  translated  from  its 
original  Italian,  informs  us  that  Romano  did  work 
in  sculpture.  In  Vasari's  second  edition,  pub- 
lished in  1568  and  translated  into  several  lan- 
guages, this  information  is  not  given.  From  these 
facts,  the  erudite  German  critic  Dr.  Karl  Elze, 
who  is  not  a  bit  of  a  Delia-Baconian,  but  only  an 
occasional  sufferer  from  vesania  commentatorum^ 
introduces  us  to  a  solemn  dilemma:  either  the 
author  of  "  The  Winter's  Tale "  must  have  -con- 
sulted the  first  edition  of  Vasari  in  the  original  Ital- 
ian, or  else  he  must  have  travelled  in  Italy  and 
gazed  upon  statues  by  Romano.  Ah !  prithee  not 
so  fast,  worthy  doctor ;  be  not  so  lavish  with  these 
"  musts."  It  is,  I  think,  improbable  that  Shake- 
speare ever  saw  Italy  except  with  the  eyes  of  his 
imperial  fancy.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are 
many  indications  that  he  could  read  Italian,  but 
among  them  we  cannot  attach  much  importance  to 
this  one.     Why  should  he  not  have  learned  from 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  373 

hearsay  that  Romano  had  made  statues  ?  In  the 
name  of  common  sense,  are  there  no  sources  of 
knowledge  save  books?  Or,  since  it  was  no  un- 
usual thing  for  Italian  painters  in  the  sixteenth 
century  to  excel  in  sculpture  and  architecture,  why- 
should  not  Shakespeare  have  assumed  without  veri- 
fication that  it  was  so  in  Eomano's  case  ?  It  was 
a  tolerably  safe  assumption  to  make,  especially  in 
an  age  utterly  careless  of  historical  accuracy,  and 
in  a  comedy  which  provides  Bohemia  with  a  sea- 
coast,  and  mixes  up  times  and  customs  with  as 
scant  heed  of  probability  as  a  fairy  tale. 

In  arguing  about  what  Shakespeare  "  must  have  " 
or  "  could  not  have  "  known,  we  must  not  forget 
that  at  no  time  or  place  since  history  began  has 
human  thought  fermented  more  briskly  than  in 
London  while  he  was  living  there.  The  age  of 
Drake  and  Raleigh  was  an  age  of  efflorescence  in 
dramatic  poetry,  such  as  had  not  been  seen  in  the 
twenty  centuries  since  Euripides  died.  Among 
Shakespeare's  fellow  craftsmen  were  writers  of 
such  great  and  varied  endowments  as  Chapman, 
Marlowe,  Greene,  Nash,  Peele,  Marston,  Dekker, 
Webster,  and  Cyril  Tourneur.  During  his  earlier 
years  in  London,  Richard  Hooker  was  master  of 
the  Middle  Temple,  and  there  a  little  later  Ford 
and  Beaumont  were  studying.     The  erudite  Cam- 


374  A  Century  of  Science 

den  was  master  of  Westminster  School;  among 
the  lights  of  the  age  for  legal  learning  were  Ed- 
ward Coke  and  Francis  Bacon ;  at  the  same  time, 
one  might  have  met  in  London  the  learned  archi- 
tect Inigo  Jones  and  the  learned  poet  John  Donne, 
both  of  them  excellent  classical  scholars ;  there  one 
would  have  found  the  divine  poet  Edmund  Spen- 
ser, just  come  over  from  Ireland  to  see  to  the  pub- 
lication of  his  "  Faerie  Queene ; "  not  long  after- 
ward came  John  Fletcher  from  Cambridge,  and  the 
acute  philosopher  Edward  Herbert  from  Oxford , 
and  one  and  aU  might  listen  to  the  incomparable 
table-talk  of  that  giant  of  scholarship,  John  Sel- 
den.  The  delights  of  the  Mermaid  Tavern,  where 
these  rare  wits  were  wont  to  assemble,  still  live  in 
tradition.     As  Keats  says :  — 

**  Souls  of  poets  dead  and  gone, 
What  Elysium  have  ye  known, 
Happy  field  or  mossy  cavern, 
Choicer  than  the  Mermaid  Tavern  ?  " 

It  has  always  been  believed  that  this  place  was 
one  of  Shakespeare's  favourite  haunts.  By  com- 
mon consent  of  scholars,  it  has  been  accepted  as 
the  scene  of  those  contests  of  wit  between  Shake- 
speare and  Jonson  of  which  Fuller  teUs  us  when 
he  compares  Jonson  to  a  Spanish  galleon,  built 
high  with  learning,  but  slow  in  movement,  while 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  375 

he  likens  Shakespeare  to  an  English  cruiser,  less 
heavily  weighted,  but  apt  for  victory  because  of  its 
nimbleness,  —  the  same  kind  of  contrast,  by  the 
way,  as  that  which  occurred  to  Milton. 

But  our  Baconizing  friends  will  not  allow  that 
Shakespeare  ever  went  to  the  Mermaid,  or  knew 
the  people  who  met  there  ;  at  least,  none  but  a  few 
fellow  dramatists.  We  have  no  documentary 
proof  that  he  ever  met  with  Ealeigh,  or  Bacon,  or 
Selden.  Let  us  observe  that,  while  these  sapient 
critics  are  in  some  cases  ready  to  welcome  the 
slightest  circumstantial  evidence,  there  are  others 
in  which  they  will  accept  nothing  short  of  absolute 
demonstration.  Did  Shakespeare  ever  see  a  may- 
pole? The  word  occurs  just  once  in  his  plays, 
namely,  in  the  "  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,"  where 
little  Hermia,  quarrelling  with  tall  Helena,  calls 
her  a  "  painted  maypole  ; "  but  that  proves  nothing. 
1  am  not  aware  that  there  is  any  absolute  docu- 
mentary proof  that  Shakespeare  ever  set  eyes  on  a 
maypole.  It  is  nevertheless  certain  that  in  Eng- 
land, at  that  time,  no  boy  could  grow  to  manhood 
without  seeing  many  a  maypole.  Common  sense 
has  some  rights  which  we  are  bound  to  respect. 

Now,  Shakespeare's  London  was  a  small  city  of 
from  150,000  to  200,000  souls,  or  about  the  size 
of  Providence  or  Minneapolis  at  the  present  time. 


376  A  Century  of  Science 

In  cities  of  such  size,  everybody  of  the  slightest 
eminence  is  known  all  over  town,  and  such  persons 
are  sure  to  be  more  or  less  acquainted  with  one  an- 
other ;  it  is  a  very  rare  exception  when  it  is  not  so. 
Before  his  thirtieth  year,  Shakespeare  was  well 
known  in  London  as  an  actor,  a  writer  of  plays, 
and  the  manager  of  a  prominent  theatre.  It  was 
in  that  year  that  Spenser,  in  his  "  Colin  Clout 's 
Come  Home  Again,"  alluding  to  Shakespeare 
under  the  name  of  Action,  or  "  eagle-like,"  paid 
him  this  compliment :  — 

**  And  there,  though  last,  not  least,  is  Action  ; 
A  gentler  shepherd  may  nowhere  be  found  ; 
Whose  muse,  full  of  high  thought's  invention, 
_  Doth,  like  himself,  heroically  sound." 

Four  years  after  this,  in  1598,  Francis  Meres  pub- 
lished his  book  entitled  "  Palladis  Tamia,"  a  very 
interesting  contribution  to  literary  history.  The 
author,  who  had  been  an  instructor  in  rhetoric  in 
the  University  of  Oxford,  was  then  living  in  Lon- 
don, near  the  Globe  Theatre.  In  this  book  Meres 
tells  his  readers  that  "  the  sweet  witty  sojil  of  Ovid 
lives  in  mellifluous  and  honey-tongued  Shakespeare  ; 
witness  his  '  Venus  and  Adonis,'  his  '  Lucrece,'  his 
sugared  sonnets  among  his  private  friends,  etc.  .  .  . 
As  Plautus  and  Seneca  are  accounted  the  best  for 
comedy  and  tragedy  among  the  Latins,  so  Shake- 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  377 

speare  among  the  English  is  the  most  excellent  in 
both  kinds  for  the  stage  :  for  comedy,  witness  his 
'  Gentlemen  of  Verona,'  his  '  Errors,'  his  '  Love's 
Labour 's  Lost,'  his  '  Love's  Labour  's  Wonne,'  ^  his 
'  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,'  and  his '  Merchant  of 
Venice ; '  for  tragedy,  his  '  Richard  II.,'  '  Richard 
III.,'  'Henry  IV.,'  'King  John,'  'Titus  Androni- 
cus,'  and  his  '  Romeo  and  Juliet.'  As  Epius  Stolo 
said  that  the  Muses  would  speak  with  Plautus's 
tongue  if  they  would  speak  Latin,  so  I  say  that  the 
Muses  would  speak  with  Shakespeare's  fine  filed 
phrase  if  they  would  speak  English."  In  other 
passages  Meres  mentions  Shakespeare's  lyrical  qual- 
ity, for  which  he  likens  him  to  Pindar  and  Catullus ; 
and  the  glory  of  his  style,  for  which  he  places  him 
along  with  Virgil  and  Homer.  It  thus  appears  that, 
at  the  age  of  thirty-four,  this  poet  from  Stratford 
was  already  ranked  by  critical  scholars  by  the  side 
of  the  greatest  names  of  antiquity.  Let  me  add 
that  the  popularity  of  his  plays  was  making  him  a 
somewhat  wealthy  man,  so  that  he  had  relieved 
his  father  from  pecuniary  troubles,  and  had  just 
bought  for  himself  the  Great  House  at  Stratford 
where  the  last  years  of  his  life  were  spent.  His 
income  seems  already  to  have  been  equivalent  to 
1,000  a  year  in  our  modern  money.      His  posi- 


^  The  comedy  afterward  developed  into  All  '5  Well  that  Ends 
Well. 


378  A  Century  of  Science 

tion  had  come  to  be  such  that  he  could  extend 
patronage  to  others.  It  was  in  1598  that  through 
his  influence  Ben  Jonson  obtained,  after  many  re- 
buffs, his  first  hearing  before  a  London  audience, 
when  "  Every  Man  in  his  Humour  "  was  brought 
out  at  Blackfriars  Theatre,  with  Shakespeare  act- 
ing one  of  the  parts. 

To  suppose  that  such  a  man  as  this,  in  a  town 
the  size  of  Minneapolis,  connected  with  a  princi- 
pal theatre,  writer  of  the  most  popular  plays  of  the 
day,  a  poet  whom  men  were  already  coupling  with 
Homer  and  Pindar,  —  to  suppose  that  such  a  man 
was  not  known  to  all  the  educated  people  in  the 
town  is  simply  absurd.  There  were  probably  very 
few  men,  women,  or  children  in  London,  between 
1595  and  1610,  who  did  not  know  who  Shake- 
speare was  when  he  passed  them  in  the  street ;  and 
as  for  such  wits  as  drank  ale  and  sack  at  the  Mer- 
maid, as  for  Raleigh  and  Bacon  and  Selden  and 
the  rest,  to  suppose  that  Shakespeare  did  not  know 
them  well  —  nay,  to  suppose  that  he  was  not  the 
leading  spirit  and  brightest  wit  of  those  ambrosial 
nights  —  is  about  as  sensible  as  to  suppose  that  he 
never  saw  a  maypole. 

The  facts  thus  far  contemplated  point  to  one 
conclusion.  The  son  of  a  well-to-do  magistrate  in 
a  small  country  town  is  born  with  a  genius  which 


The  Bacon- Shahespeare  Folly  379 

the  world  has  never  seen  surpassed.  Coming  to 
London  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  achieves  such 
swift  success  that  within  thirteen  years  he  is  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  chief  glories  of  English  htera- 
ture.  During  this  time  he  is  living  in  the  midst 
of  such  a  period  of  intellectual  ferment  as  the 
world  has  seldom  seen,  and  in  a  position  which 
necessarily  brings  him  into  frequent  contact  with 
all  the  most  cultivated  men.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, there  is  nothing  in  the  smallest  degree 
strange  or  surprising  in  his  acquiring  the  varied 
knowledge  which  his  plays  exhibit.  The  major 
premise  of  the  Delia  -  Baconians  has,  therefore, 
nothing  in  it  whatever.  It  is  a  mere  bubble,  an 
empty  vagary,  —  only  this,  and  nothing  more. 

Before  leaving  this  part  of  the  subject,  however, 
there  are  still  one  or  two  points  of  interest  to  be 
mentioned.  Shakespeare  shows  a  fondness  for  the 
use  of  phrases  and  illustrations  taken  from  the 
law ;  and  on  such  grounds  our  Delia-Baconians 
argue  that  the  plays  must  have  been  written  by  an 
eminent  lawyer,  such  as  the  Lord  Chancellor  Bacon 
undoubtedly  was.  They  feel  that  this  is  a  great 
point  on  their  side.  One  instance,  cited  by  Na- 
thaniel Holmes  and  other  Baconizers,  is  the  cele- 
brated case  of  Sir  James  Hales,  who  committed 
suicide  by  drowning,  and  was  accordingly  buried 


380  A  Century  of  Science 

at  the  junction  of  crossroads,  with  a  stake  through 
his  body,  while  all  his  property  was  forfeited  to  the 
Crown.  Presently  his  widow  brought  suit  for  an 
estate  by  survivorship  in  joint-tenancy.  Her  case 
turned  upon  the  question  whether  the  forfeiture 
occurred  during  her  late  husband's  lifetime  :  if  it 
did,  he  left  no  estate  which  she  could  take ;  if  it 
did  not,  she  took  the  estate  by  survivorship.  The 
lady's  counsel  argued  that  so  long  as  Sir  James 
was  alive  he  had  not  been  guilty  of  suicide,  and 
the  instant  he  died  the  estate  vested  in  his  widow 
as  joint-tenant.  But  the  opposing  counsel  argued 
that  the  instant  Sir  James  voluntarily  made  the 
fatal  plimge,  and  therefore  before  the  breath  had 
left  his  body,  the  guilt  of  suicide  was  incurred  and 
the  forfeiture  took  place.  The  court  decided  in 
favour  of  this  view,  and  the  widow  got  nothing. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  decision  is 
travestied  in  the  conversation  of  the  two  clowns  in 
"Hamlet"  with  regard  to  Ophelia's  right  to  Chris- 
tian burial.  The  first  clown  makes  precisely  the 
point  upon  which  the  ingenious  counsel  for  the  de- 
fendant had  rested  his  argument :  "  If  I  drown 
myself  wittingly,  it  argues  an  act,  and  an  act  hath 
three  branches  ;  it  is  to  act,  to  do,  and  to  perform." 
In  making  this  distinction  the  counsel  had  main- 
tained that  the  second  branch,  or  the  doing,  was 


Tke  Bacorir Shakespeare  Folly  381 

the  only  thing  for  the  law  to  consider.  The  talk 
of  the  clowns  brings  out  the  humour  of  the  case 
with  Shakespeare's  inimitable  lightness  of  touch. 

The  report  of  the  Hales  case  was  published  in 
the  volume  of  "  Plowden's  Eeports "  which  was 
issued  in  1578 ;  and  Mr.  Holmes  informs  us  that 
"  there  is  not  the  slightest  ground  for  a  behef ,  on 
the  facts  which  we  know,  that  Shakespeare  ever 
looked  into  '  Plowden's  Keports.'  "  This  is  one  of 
the  cases  where  your  stern  Baconizer  will  not  hear 
of  anything  short  of  absolute  demonstration.  Mere 
considerations  of  human  probability  might  disturb 
the  cogency  of  a  neat  little  pair  of  syllogisms  ;  — 

(1.)  The  author  of  "Hamlet"  must  have  read 
Plowden.  Shakespeare  never  read  Plowden. 
Therefore  Shakespeare  was  not  the  author  of 
"  Hamlet." 

(2.)  The  author  of  "  Hamlet "  must  have  read 
Plowden.  The  lawyer,  Bacon,  must  have  read 
Plowden.     Therefore  Bacon  wrote  "  Hamlet." 

With  regard  to  the  major  premise  here,  one  may 
freely  deny  it.  The  author  of  "  Hamlet "  might 
easily  have  got  all  the  knowledge  involved  from 
an  evening  chat  with  some  legal  friend  at  an  ale- 
house. Then  as  to  the  minor  premise,  what  earthly 
improbability  is  there  in  Shakespeare's  having 
dipped  into  Plowden  ?    Can  nobody  but  lawyers  or 


382  A  Century  of  Science 

law  students  enjoy  reading  reports  of  law  cases  ? 
I  remember  that,  when  I  was  about  ten  years  old,  a 
favourite  book  with  me  was  one  entitled  "  Criminal 
Trials  of  All  Countries,  by  a  Member  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Bar."  I  read  it  and  read  it,  until  forbid- 
den to  read  such  a  gruesome  book,  and  then  I  read 
it  all  the  more.  One  of  the  most  elaborate  reports 
in  it  was  that  of  the  famous  case  of  Captain  Donel- 
lan,  tried  in  1780  on  a  charge  of  poisoning  his 
wife's  brother.  Sir  Theodosius  Boughton,  a  dis- 
sipated and  diseased  young  man,  who  died  very 
suddenly  one  day.  A  post  -  mortem  inspection 
showed  spots  in  the  intestine,  which  three  ordinary 
country  doctors  ascribed  to  poisoning  by  laurel 
water,  while  Sir  John  Hunter,  one  of  the  greatest 
authorities  in  Europe,  testified  that  they  might 
equally  well  have  ensued  upon  death  from  apo- 
plexy. The  judge,  Sir  Francis  Buller,  saw  fit,  in 
his  charge,  to  reckon  this  as  the  testimony  of  three 
experts  against  one ;  and  thus  the  jury  were  driven 
to  a  verdict  of  murder,  though  it  was  not  proved 
that  any  murder  had  been  committed.  Captain 
Donellan,  who  lived  in  his  brother-in-law's  house, 
was  a  man  of  blameless  life,  an  amateur  chemist, 
much  given  to  foohng  with  odorous  liquids  and 
hissing  retorts.  It  was  proved  that  he  had  been 
distilling  laurel  water,  and  one  or  two  other  sus- 


The  Bacon- Shahespeare  Folly  383 

picious  circumstances  were  alleged.  The  whole 
trial  was  begun  and  ended  on  the  same  day,  the 
jury  were  about  twenty  minutes  in  finding  the  cap- 
tain guilty,  and  three  days  afterward  he  was  hung. 
It  was  a  case  where  reason  was  submerged  and 
drowned  under  a  wave  of  angry  prejudice  shriek- 
ing for  a  victim. 

Now,  if  I  did  not  forthwith  write  a  play,  and 
take  the  occasion  to  ridicule  the  judge's  charge  to 
the  jury,  it  was  because  I  could  not  write  a  play, 
not  because  I  did  not  fully  appreciate  the  insult  to 
law  and  common  sense  which  that  unfortunate  case 
involved.  In  view  of  this  and  other  experiences, 
when  I  now  read  a  play  or  a  novel  that  contains 
an  intelligent  allusion  to  some  law  case,  I  am  far 
from  feeling  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  it  must 
have  been  written  by  a  lord  chancellor. 

If  Shakespeare's  dramas  are  proved  by  such 
internal  evidence  to  have  been  written  by  a  lawyer, 
that  lawyer,  by  parity  of  reasoning,  could  hardly 
have  been  Francis  Bacon.  For  he  was  preemi- 
nently a  chancery  lawyer,  and  chancery  phrases  are  , 
in  Shakespeare  conspicuously  absent.  The  word 
"  injunctions  "  occurs  five  times  in  the  plays,  once 
perhaps  with  a  reference  to  its  legal  use  ("  Mer- 
chant of  Venice,"  II.  ix.)  ;  but  nowhere  do  we 
find   any   exhibition   of  a  knowledge  of  chancery 


384  A  Century  of  Science 

law.  His  allusions  to  the  common  law  are  often 
very  amusing,  as  when,  in  "  Love's  Labour 's  Lost," 
at  the  end  of  a  brisk  punning-match  between  Boyet 
and  Maria,  he  oifers  to  kiss  her,  laughingly  asking 
for  a  grant  of  pasture  on  her  lips,  and  she  replies, 
"  Not  so ;  my  lips  are  no  common,  though  several 
they  be."  Again,  in  "  The  Comedy  of  Errors," 
"  Dromio  asserts  that  there  is  no  time  for  a  bald 
man  to  recover  his  hair.  This  having  been  writ- 
ten, the  law  phrase  suggested  itself,  and  he  was 
asked  whether  he  might  not  do  it  by  fine  and  re- 
covery, and  this  suggested  the  efficiency  of  that 
proceeding  to  bar  heirs ;  and  this  started  the  con- 
ceit that  thus  the  lost  hair  of  another  man  would  be 
recovered."  ^  In  such  quaint  allusions  to  the  com- 
mon law  and  its  proceedings  Shakespeare  abounds, 
and  we  cannot  help  remembering  that  Nash,  in  his 
prefatory  epistle  to  Greene's  "  Menaphon,"  printed 
about  1589,  makes  sneering  mention  of  Shake- 
speare as  a  man  who  had  left  the  "  trade  of  Nove- 
rint,"  whereunto  he  was  born,  in  order  to  try  his 
hand  at  tragedy.  The  "trade  of  Noverint"  was 
a  slang  expression  for  the  business  of  attorney; 
and  this  passage  has  suggested  that  Shakespeare 
may  have  spent  some  time  m  a  law  office,  as  stu- 
dent or  as  clerk,  either  before  leaving  Stratford,  or 

1  Davis,  The  Law  in  Shakespeare,  St.  Paul,  1884. 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  385 

perhaps  soon  after  his  arrival  in  London.  This 
seems  to  me  not  improbable.  On  the  other  hand, 
"  The  Merchant  of  Venice "  contains  such  crazy 
law  that  it  is  hard  to  imagine  it  coming  even  from 
a  lawyer's  clerk.  At  all  events,  we  may  safely  say 
that  the  legal  knowledge  exhibited  in  the  plays  is 
no  more  than  might  readily  have  been  acquired  by 
a  man  of  assimilative  genius  associating  with  law- 
yers. It  simply  shows  the  range  and  accuracy  of 
Shakespeare's  powers  of  observation. 

Let  us  come  now  to  the  second  part  of  the  Delia 
Bacon  theory.  Having  satisfied  herself  that  Wil- 
liam Shakespeare  could  not  have  written  the  poems 
and  plays  published  under  his  name,  she  jumped 
to  the  conclusion  that  Francis  Bacon  was  the  au- 
thor. Surely,  a  singular  choice !  Of  all  men, 
why  Francis  Bacon  ?  ^  Why  not,  as  I  said  before, 
George  Chapman  or  Ben  Jonson,  men  who  were 
at  once  learned  scholars  and  great  poets?  Chap- 
man, like  Marlowe,  could  write  the  "  mighty  line." 
Jonson  had  rare  lyric  power;  his  verses  sing,  as 
witness  the  wonderful  "  Do  but  look  on  her  eyes," 
which  Francis  Bacon  could  no  more  have  written 
than  he  could  have  jumped  over  the  moon.     To 

^  There  is  reason  for  believing  that  this  choice  was  an  instance 
of  the  megalomania  developed  by  Miss  Bacon's  malady.  She 
imagined  a  remote  kinship  between  herself  and  Lord  Bacon. 
Possibly  there  may  have  been  such  kinship. 


386  A  Century  of  Science 

pitch  upon  Bacon  as  the  writer  of  "  Twelfth  Night " 
or  "  Romeo  and  Juliet "  is  about  as  sensible  as  to 
assert  that  "  David  Copperfield  "  must  have  been 
written  by  Charles  Darwin.  After  a  familiar  ac- 
quaintance of  more  than  forty  years  with  Shake- 
speare's works,  of  nearly  forty  years  with  Bacon's, 
the  two  men  impress  me  as  simply  antipodal  one 
to  the  other.  A  similar  feeling  was  entertained 
by  the  late  Mr.  Spedding,  the  biographer  and  edi- 
tor of  Bacon ;  and  no  one  has  more  happily  hit  off 
the  vagaries  of  the  Baconizers  than  the  foremost 
Bacon  scholar  now  living,  Dr.  Kuno  Fischer,  in  his 
recent  address  before  the  Shakespeare  Society  at 
Weimar.  1  I  used  to  wonder  whether  the  Bacon- 
Shakespeare  people  really  knew  anything  about 
Bacon,  and,  now  that  chance  has  led  me  to  read 
their  books,  I  am  quite  sure  they  do  not.  To  their 
minds,  his  works  are  simply  a  storehouse  of  texts 
which  serve  them  for  controversial  missiles,  very 
much  as  scattered  texts  from  the  Bible  used  to 
serve  our  uncritical  grandfathers. 

Francis  Bacon  was  one  of  the  most  interesting 
persons  of  his  time,  and,  as  is  often  the  case  with 
such  many-sided  characters,  posterity  has  held  vari- 
ous opinions  about  him.  On  the  one  hand,  his 
fame  has  grown  brighter  with  the  years ;  on  the 

1  Fischer,  Shakespeare  und  die  Bacon  Mythen,  Heidelberg,  1895. 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  387 

other  hand,  it  has  come  to  be  more  or  less  circum- 
scribed and  limited.  Pope's  famous  verse,  "The 
wisest,  brightest,  meanest  of  mankind,"  may  be 
disputed  in  all  its  three  specifications.  Bacon's 
treatment  of  Essex,  which  formerly  called  forth 
such  bitter  condemnation,  has  been,  I  think,  com- 
pletely justified ;  and  as  for  the  taking  of  bribes, 
which  led  to  his  disgrace,  there  were  circumstances 
which  ought  largely  to  mitigate  the  severity  of 
our  judgment.  But  if  Bacon  was  far  from  being 
a  mean  example  of  human  nature,  it  is  surely  an 
exaggeration  to  call  him  the  wisest  and  brightest 
of  mankind.  He  was  a  scholar  and  critic  of  vast 
accomplishments,  a  writer  of  noble  English  prose, 
and  a  philosopher  who  represented  rather  than 
inaugurated  a  most  beneficial  revolution  in  the 
aims  and  methods  of  scientific  inquiry.  He  is  one 
of  the  real  glories  of  English  literature,  but  he  is 
also  one  of  the  most  overrated  men  of  modern 
times.  When  we  find  Macaulay  saying  that  Bacon 
had  "  the  most  exquisitely  constructed  intellect  that 
has  ever  been  bestowed  on  any  of  the  children  of 
men,"  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  his 
elaborate  essay  on  Bacon  is  as  false  in  its  funda- 
mental conception  as  it  is  inaccurate  in  details. 
For  a  long  time  it  was  one  of  the  accepted  com- 
monplaces that  Bacon  inaugurated  the  method  by 


388  A  Centura/  of  Science 

which  modern  discoveries  in  physical  science  have 
been  made.  Early  in  the  present  century,  such 
writers  on  the  history  of  science  as  Whewell  began 
to  show  the  incorrectness  of  this  notion,  and  it  was 
completely  exploded  by  Stanley  Jevons  in  his 
"  Principles  of  Science,"  the  most  profound  treatise 
on  method  that  has  appeared  in  the  last  fifty  years. 
Jevons  writes  :  "  It  is  wholly  a  mistake  to  say  that 
modern  science  is  the  result  of  the  Baconian  phi- 
losophy ;  it  is  the  Newtonian  philosophy  and  the 
Newtonian  method  which  have  led  to  all  the  great 
triumphs  of  physical  science,  and  .  .  .  the  '  Prin- 
cipia'  forms  the  true  Novum  Organon."  This 
statement  of  Jevons  is  thoroughly  sound.  The 
great  Harvey,  who  knew  how  scientific  discoveries 
are  made,  said  with  gentle  sarcasm  that  Bacon 
"  wrote  philosophy  like  a  lord  chancellor ; "  yet 
Harvey  would  not  have  denied  that  the  chancellor 
was  doing  noble  service  as  the  eloquent  expounder 
of  many  sides  of  the  scientific  movement  that  was 
then  gathering  strength.  Bacon's  mind  was  emi- 
nently sagacious  and  fertile  in  suggestions,  but 
the  supreme  creative  faculty,  the  power  to  lead 
men  into  new  paths,  was  precisely  the  thing  which 
he  did  not  possess.  His  place  is  a  very  high  one 
among  intellects  of  the  second  order ;  but  to  rank 
him  with  such  godlike  spirits  as  Newton,  Spinoza, 


TTie  Bacon-  Shahespeare  Folly  389 

and  Leibnitz  simply  shows  that  one  has  no  real 
knowledge  of  the  work  which  such  men  have  done. 

So  much  for  Bacon  himself.  With  regard  to 
him  as  possible  author  of  the  Shakespeare  poems 
and  plays,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  so  learned 
a  scholar  making  the  kind  of  mistakes  that  abound 
in  those  writings.  Bacon  would  hardly  have  in- 
troduced clocks  into  the  Rome  of  Julius  Caesar; 
nor  would  he  have  made  Hector  quote  Aristo- 
tle, nor  Hamlet  study  at  the  University  of  Wit- 
tenberg, founded  five  hundred  years  after  Hamlet's 
time ;  nor  would  he  have  put  pistols  into  the  age 
of  Henry  IV.,  nor  cannon  into  the  age  of  King 
John ;  and  we  may  be  pretty  sure  that  he  would 
not  have  made  one  of  the  characters  in  "King 
Lear"  talk  about  Turks  and  Bedlam.  In  this 
severely  realistic  age  of  ours,  writers  are  more  on 
their  guard  against  such  anachronisms  than  they 
were  in  Shakespeare's  time ;  in  his  works  we  can- 
not call  them  serious  blemishes,  for  they  do  not 
affect  the  artistic  character  of  the  plays,  but  they 
are  certainly  such  mistakes  as  a  scholar  like  Bacon 
would  not  have  committed. 

Deeper  down  lies  the  contrast  involved  in  the 
fact  that  Bacon  was  in  a  high  degree  a  subjective 
writer,  from  whom  you  are  perpetually  getting 
revelations  of  his  idiosyncrasies  and  moods,  whereas 


390  A  Century  of  Science 

of  all  writers  in  tlie  world  Shakespeare  is  the  most 
completely  objective,  the  most  absorbed  in  the 
work  of  creation.  In  the  one  writer  you  are  al- 
ways reminded  of  the  man  Bacon ;  in  the  other 
the  personality  is  never  thrust  into  sight.  Bacon 
is  highly  self-conscious  ;  from  Shakespeare  self- 
consciousness  is  absent. 

The  contrast  is  equally  great  in  respect  of 
humour.  I  would  not  deny  that  Bacon  relished 
a  joke,  or  could  perpetrate  a  pun ;  but  the  bub- 
bling, seething,  frolicsome,  irrepressible  drollery  of 
Shakespeare  is  something  quite  foreign  to  him. 
Read  his  essays,  and  you  get  charming  English, 
wide  knowledge,  deep  thought,  keen  observation, 
worldly  wisdom,  good  humour,  sweet  serenity; 
but  exuberant  fun  is  not  there.  In  writing  these 
essays  Bacon  was  following  an  example  set  by 
Montaigne,  but,  as  contrasted  with  the  delicate  effer- 
vescent humour  of  the  Frenchman,  his  style  seems 
sober  and  almost  insipid.  Only  fancy  such  a  man 
trying  to  write  "  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  "  ! 

Both  Shakespeare  and  Bacon  were  sturdy  and  ra- 
pacious purloiners.  They  seized  upon  other  men's 
bright  thoughts  and  made  them  their  own  without 
compunction  and  without  acknowledgment;  and 
this  may  account  for  sundry  similarities  which  may 
be  culled  from  the  plays  and  from  Bacon's  works, 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  391 

upon  which  Baconizing  text-mongers  are  wont  to 
lay  great  stress  as  proof  of  common  authorship. 
Some  such  resemblances  may  be  due  to  borrowing 
from  common  sources ;  others  are  doubtless  purely 
fanciful;  others  indicate  either  that  Shakespeare 
cribbed  from  Bacon  or  vice  versa.  Here  are  a 
few  miscellaneous  instances :  — 

Where  Bacon  says,  *'  Be  so  true  to  thyself  as 
thou  be  not  false  to  others  "("  Essay  of  Wisdom  "), 
Shakespeare  says :  — 

"  To  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day. 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

(Hamlet,  I.  iii.) 

This  looks  as  if  one  writer  might  have  copied  from 
the  other.  If  so,  it  is  Bacon  who  is  the  thief,  for 
the  lines  occur  in  the  quarto  "  Hamlet "  published 
in  1603,  whereas  the  "  Essay  of  Wisdom  "  was 
first  published  in  1612. 

Again,  where  Bacon,  in  the  "  Essay  of  Gardens," 
says,  "  The  breath  of  flowers  comes  and  goes  like 
the  warbling  of  music,"  it  reminds  one  strongly 
of  the  exquisite  passage  in  "  Twelfth  Night "  where 
the  Duke  exclaims :  — 

"  That  strain  again !  it  had  a  dying  fall : 
O,  it  came  o'er  my  ear  like  the  sweet  south, 
That  breathes  upon  a  bank  of  violets, 
Stealing  and  giving  odour." 


392  A  Century  of  Science 

I  have  little  doubt  that  Bacon  had  this  passage 
in  mind  when  he  wrote  the  "  Essay  of  Gardens," 
which  was  first  published  in  1625,  two  years  later 
than  the  complete  folio  of  Shakespeare.  This 
effectually  disposes  of  the  attempt  to  cite  these 
correspondences  in  evidence  that  Bacon  wrote  the 
plays. 

Another  instance  is  from  "  Richard  III. :  "  — 

"  By  a  divine  instinct  men's  minds  mistrust 
Ensuing  danger ;  as,  by  proof,  we  see 
The  waters  swell  before  a  boisterous  storm." 

Bacon,  in  the  "  Essay  of  Sedition,"  writes,  "  As 
there  are  .  .  .  secret  swellings  of  seas  before  a 
tempest,  so  there  are  in  states."  But  this  essay 
was  not  published  till  1625,  so  again  we  find  him 
copying  Shakespeare.  Many  such  "  parallelisms," 
cited  to  prove  that  Bacon  wrote  Shakespeare's 
works,  do  really  prove  that  he  read  them  with 
great  care  and  remembered  them  well,  or  else  took 
notes  from  them. 

An  interesting  illustration  of  the  helpless  igno- 
rance shown  by  Baconizers  is  furnished  by  a  re- 
mark of  Sir  Toby  Belch  in  "  TweHth  Night."  In 
his  instructions  to  that  dear  old  simpleton,  Sir 
Andrew  Aguecheek,  about  the  challenge.  Sir  Toby 
observes,  "  If  thou  thou'st  him  some  thrice,  it  shall 
not  be  amiss."     In   Elizabethan  Enghsh,  to  ad- 


The  Bacon- Shahespeare  Folly  393 

dress  a  man  as  "  thou  "  was  to  treat  him  as  socially 
inferior;  such  familiarity  was  allowable  only  be- 
tween members  of  the  same  family  or  in  speaking 
to  servants,  just  as  you  address  your  wife,  and 
likewise  the  cook  and  housemaid,  by  their  Christian 
names,  while  with  the  ladies  of  your  acquaintance 
such  familiarity  would  be  rudeness.  The  same 
rule  for  the  pronoun  survives  to-day  in  French  and 
German,  but  has  been  forgotten  in  English.  In 
the  trial  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  in  1604,  Justice 
Coke  insulted  the  prisoner  by  calling  out,  "  Thou 
viper !  for  I  thou  thee,  thou  traitor !  "  Now,  one 
of  our  Baconizers  thinks  that  his  idol,  in  writing 
"Twelfth  Night,"  introduced  Sir  Toby's  sugges- 
tion in  order  to  recall  to  the  audience  Coke's  abu- 
sive remark.  Once  more,  a  little  attention  to  dates 
would  have  prevented  the  making  of  a  bad  blun- 
der. We  know  from  Manningham's  Diary  that 
"  Twelfth  Night "  had  been  on  the  stage  nearly 
two  years  before  Raleigh's  trial.  On  the  other 
hand,  to  say  that  the  play  might  have  suggested  to 
Coke  his  coarse  speech  would  be  admissible,  but 
idle,  inasmuch  as  the  expression  "  to  thou  a  man  " 
was  an  every-day  phrase  in  that  age. 

Here  it  naturally  occurs  to  me  to  mention  the 
"Promus,"  about  which  as  much  fuss  has  been 
made  as  if  it  really  furnished  evidence  in  support 


394  A  Century  of  Science 

of  the  Baconian  folly.  There  is  in  the  British 
Museum  a  manuscript,  in  Bacon's  handwriting,  en- 
titled "  Promus  of  Formularies  and  Elegancies." 
"  Promus  "  means  "  storehouse  "  or  "  treasury." 
A  date  at  the  top  of  the  first  page  shows  that  it 
was  begun  in  December,  1594 ;  there  is  nothing, 
I  believe,  to  show  over  how  many  years  it  ex- 
tended. It  is  a  scrap-book  in  which  Bacon  jotted 
down  such  sentences,  words,  and  phrases  as  struck 
his  fancy,  such  as  might  be  utilized  in  his  writings. 
These  neatly  turned  phrases,  these  "formularies 
and  elegancies,"  are  gathered  from  all  quarters,  — 
from  the  Bible,  from  Yirgil  and  Horace,  from  Ovid 
and  Seneca,  from  Erasmus,  from  collections  of 
proverbs  in  various  languages,  etc.  As  there  is 
apparently  nothing  original  in  this  scrap-bag,  Mr. 
Spedding  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  include 
it  in  his  edition  of  Bacon's  works,  but  in  the  four- 
teenth volume  he  gives  a  sufficient  description  of 
it,  with  illustrative  extracts.  In  1883  Mrs.  Henry 
Pott  published  the  whole  of  this  "  Promus  "  manu- 
script, and  swelled  it  by  comments  and  disserta- 
tions into  a  volume  of  600  octavo  pages.  She  had 
found  in  it  several  hundred  expressions  which  re- 
minded her  of  passages  in  Shakespeare,  and  so  it 
confirmed  her  in  the  opinion  which  she  already 
entertained  that  Bacon  was  the  author  of  Shake- 


The  Bacon- ShaJcespeare  Folly  395 

speare's  works.  Thus,  when  the  "  Promus  "  has  a 
verse  from  Ovid,  which  means,  "  And  the  forced 
tongue  begins  to  lisp  the  sound  commanded,"  it 
reminds  Mrs.  Pott  of  divers  lines  in  which  Shake- 
speare uses  the  word  "lisp,"  as  for  example,  in 
"  As  You  Like  It,"  "  you  lisp  and  wear  strange 
suits  ;  "  and  she  jumps  to  the  conclusion  that  when 
Bacon  jotted  down  the  verse  from  Ovid,  it  was  as 
a  preparatory  study  toward  "  As  You  Like  It," 
and  any  other  play  that  contains  the  word  "  lisp  :  " 
therefore  Bacon  wrote  all  those  plays,  Q,  E,  D. ! 
On  the  next  page  we  find  Virgil's  remark,  "  Thus 
was  I  wont  to  compare  great  things  with  smaU," 
made  the  father  of  Falstaff's  "  base  comparisons," 
and  Fluellen's  "  Macedon  and  Monmouth,"  as  well 
as  honest  Dogberry's  "  comparisons  are  odorous." 
When  one  reads  such  things,  evidently  printed  in 
all  seriousness,  one  feels  like  asking  Mrs.  Pott, 
in  the  apt  words  of  Shakespeare's  friend  Fletcher, 
"  What  mare's  nest  hast  thou  found  ?  "  ("  Bon- 
duca,"  V.  ii.) 

There  are  many  phrases,  however,  in  the  "  Pro- 
mus "  which  undoubtedly  agree  with  phrases  in  the 
plays.  They  show  that  Bacon  heard  or  read  the 
plays  with  great  interest,  and  culled  from  them  his 
"  elegancies  "  with  no  stinted  hand.  As  for  Mrs. 
Pott's  bulky  volume,  it  brings  us  so  near  to  the  final 


396  A  Century  of  Science 

reduetio  ad  absurdum  of  the  Bacon  theory  that  we 
hardly  need  spend  many  words  upon  the  gross  im- 
probabilities which  that  theory  involves.  The  plays 
of  Shakespeare  were  universally  ascribed  to  him  by 
his  contemporaries ;  many  of  them  were  published 
during  his  lifetime  with  liis  name  upon  the  title- 
page  as  the  author ;  all  were  collected  and  published 
together  by  Hemminge  and  Condell,  two  of  his 
fellow  actors,  seven  years  after  his  death ;  and  for 
more  than  two  centuries  nobody  ever  dreamed  of 
looking  for  a  different  authorship,  or  of  associating 
the  plays  with  Bacon.  But  this  Chimborazo  of 
jprima  facie  evidence  becomes  a  mere  mole-hill  in 
the  hands  of  your  valiant  Baconizer.  It  is  all  clear 
to  him.  Bacon  did  not  acknowledge  the  authorship 
of  these  works  because  such  literature  was  deemed 
frivolous,  and  current  prejudices  against  theatres 
and  playwrights  might  injure  his  hopes  of  advance- 
ment at  the  bar  and  in  political  life.  Therefore, 
by  some  sort  of  private  understanding  with  the 
ignorant  and  sordid  wretch  Shakespeare,^  at  whose 
theatre  they  were  brought  out,  their  authorship 
was  ascribed  to  him,  the  real  author  died  without 
revealing  the  secret,  and  the  whole  world  was  de- 
ceived until  the  days  of  Delia  Bacon. 

1  The  Baconizers  usually  delight  in  berating-  poor  Shakespeare, 
making  much  of  the  deer-stealing  business,  the  circumstances  of 
his  marriage,  etc. 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  397 

But  there  are  questions  which  even  this  ingen- 
ious hypothesis  fails  to  answer.  Why  should 
Bacon  have  taken  the  time  to  write  those  thirty- 
seven  plays,  two  poems,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
four  sonnets,  if  they  were  never  to  be  known  as  his 
works  ?  Not  for  money,  surely,  for  that  grasping 
Shakespeare  seems  to  have  got  the  money  as  well 
as  the  fame ;  Bacon  died  a  poor  man.  His  prin- 
cipal aim  in  life  was  to  construct  a  new  system  of 
philosophy;  on  this  noble  undertaking  he  spent 
such  time  as  he  could  save  from  the  exactions  of 
his  public  career  as  member  of  Parliament,  chan- 
cery lawyer,  solicitor-general,  attorney-general,  lord 
chancellor ;  and  he  died  with  this  work  far  from 
finished.  The  volumes  which  he  left  behind  him 
were  only  fragments  of  the  mighty  structure  which 
he  had  planned.  We  may  well  ask.  Where  did 
this  overburdened  writer  find  the  time  for  doing 
work  of  another  kind  voluminous  enough  to  fill  a 
lifetime,  and  what  motive  had  he  for  doing  it  with- 
out recompense  in  either  fame  or  money?  Bacon- 
izers  find  it  strange  that  Shakespeare's  will  con- 
tains no  reference  to  his  plays  as  literary  property. 
The  omission  is  certainly  interesting,  since  it  seems 
to  indicate  that  he  had  parted  with  his  pecuniary 
interest  in  them,  —  had  perhaps  sold  it  out  to  the 
Globe  Theatre.     If  this  omission  can  be  held  to 


398  A  Century  of  Science 

sliow  that  Shakespeare  was  lacking  in  fondness  for 
the  productions  of  his  own  genius,  what  shall  be 
said  of  the  notion  that  Bacon  spent  half  his  life 
in  writing  works  the  paternity  of  which  he  must 
forever  disown  ? 

This  question  is  answered  by  Mr.  Ignatius  Don- 
nelly, a  writer  who  speculates  with  equal  infelicity 
on  aU  subjects,  but  never  suffers  for  lack  of  bold- 
ness. He  published  in  1887  a  book  even  bigger 
than  that  of  Mrs.  Pott,  for  it  has  nearly  1000 
pages.  Its  title  is,  "  The  Great  Cryptogram,"  and 
its  thesis  is,  that  Bacon  really  did  claim  the  author- 
ship of  the  Shakespeare  plays.  Only  the  claim  was 
made  in  a  cipher,  and  if  you  simply  make  some 
numbers  mean  some  words,  and  other  words  mean 
other  numbers,  and  perform  a  good  many  sums  in 
what  the  Mock  Turtle  called  "  ambition,  distrac- 
tion, uglification,  and  derision,"  you  will  be  able 
to  read  this  claim  between  the  lines,  along  with 
much  other  wonderful  information.  Thus  does  the 
arithmetical  Donnelly  carry  us  quite  a  long  stride 
nearer  to  the  reduetio  ad  ahsurdum,  or  suicide 
point,  than  we  were  left  by  Mrs.  Pott,  with  her 
lisping  and  limping  comparisons. 

But  before  we  come  to  the  jumping-off  place,  let 
us  pause  for  a  moment  and  take  a  retrospective 
glance  at  the  natural  history  of  the  Bacon-Shake- 


The  Bacon-Shahespeare  Folly  399 

speare  craze.  What  was  it  that  first  unlocked 
the  sluice-gates,  and  poured  forth  such  a  deluge 
of  foolishness  upon  a  sorely  suffering  world?  It 
will  hardly  do  to  lay  the  blame  upon  poor  Delia 
Bacon.  Her  suggestions  would  have  borne  no  fruit 
had  they  not  found  a  public,  albeit  a  narrow  one, 
in  some  degree  prepared  for  them.  Who,  then, 
prepared  the  soil  for  the  seeds  of  this  idiocy  to 
take  root?  Who  but  the  race  of  fond  and  fool- 
ish Shakespeare  commentators,  with  their  absurd 
claims  for  their  idol  ?  During  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury Shakespeare  was  generally  underrated.  Vol- 
taire wondered  how  a  nation  that  possessed  such  a 
noble  tragedy  as  Addison's  "  Cato  "  could  endure 
such  plays  as  "  Hamlet "  and  "  Othello."  In  the 
days  of  Scott  and  Bums  a  reaction  set  in ;  and 
Shakespeare  worship  reached  its  height  when  the 
Germans  took  it  up,  and,  not  satisfied  with  calling 
him  the  prince  of  poets  and  peerless  master  of 
dramatic  art,  began  to  discover  in  his  works  all 
sorts  of  hidden  philosophy  and  impossible  know- 
ledge. Of  the  average  German  mind  Lowell  good- 
naturedly  says  that  "  it  finds  its  keenest  pleasure 
in  divining  a  profound  significance  in  the  most 
trifling  things,  and  the  number  of  mare's  nests 
that  have  been  stared  into  by  the  German  Gelehr- 
ter  through  his  spectacles  passes  calculation."  ^ 
1  Literary  Essays,  ii.  163. 


400  A  Centwy  of  Science 

But  the  Germans  are  not  the  only  sinners  ;  let  me 
cite  an  instance  from  near  home.  In  the  quarto 
"  Hamlet  "  of  1603  we  read  :  — 

"  Full  forty  years  are  past,  their  date  is  gone, 
Since  happy  time  joined  both  our  hearts  as  one  : 
And  now  the  blood  that  filled  my  youthful  veins 
Runs  weakly  in  their  pipes,"  etc. 

Whereupon  Mr.  Edward  Vining  calls  upon  us  to 
observe  how  Shakespeare,  "  to  whom  all  human 
knowledge  seems  to  be  but  a  matter  of  instinct,  in 
[these  lines]  asserts  the  circulation  of  the  blood 
in  the  veins  and  '  pipes,'  a  truth  which  Harvey 
probably  did  not  even  suspect  until  at  least  thir- 
teen years  later,"  etc.^  Does  Mr.  Vining  really 
suppose  that  what  Harvey  did  was  to  discover 
that  blood  runs  in  our  veins?  A  little  further 
study  of  history  would  have  taught  him  that  even 
the  ancients  knew  that  blood  runs  in  the  veins.^ 
About  fourteen  hundred  years  before  "  Hamlet " 
was  written,  Galen  proved  that  it  also  runs  in  the 

1  The  Bankside  Shakespeare,  vol.  xi.  p.  xi. 

2  The  writings  of  Hippocrates  abound  in  examples,  as  in  his 
interesting  explanation  of  congestion,  extravasation,  etc.  {Be 
Fenfis,  x.-xiv.,  Opera,  ed.  Littr^,  tom.  vi.pp.  104-114),  to  cite  one 
instance  out  of  a  thousand :  'EireiSoj/  oZv  is  ras  iraxfias  Koi  iro\v- 
a'l/xovs  ruv  ^Ke^av  iroXhs  a^p  Ppiffri^  0pi(Tas  Se  fievr),  KwKverai  rh 
aXfxa  Sie^ieVoi*  Tp  ixkv  oZv  4v4(rrr)K€y  if  Se  vcodpws  5i6|epx6TO»,  rf 
Se  Oafforou'  etc. 


The  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  401 

arteries.  After  Galen's  time,  it  was  believed  tliat 
the  dark  blood  nourishes  such  plebeian  organs  as 
the  liver,  while  the  bright  blood  nourishes  such 
lordly  organs  as  the  brain,  and  that  the  inter- 
change takes  place  in  the  heart ;  until  the  six- 
teenth century,  when  Vesalius  proved  that  the 
interchange  does  not  take  place  in  the  heart,  and 
the  martyr  Servetus  proved  that  it  does  take  place 
in  the  lungs ;  and  so  on  till  1619,  when  Harvey 
discovered  that  dark  blood  is  brought  by  the  veins 
to  the  right  side  of  the  heart,  and  thence  driven 
into  the  lungs,  where  it  becomes  bright  and  flows 
into  the  left  side  of  the  heart,  thence  to  be  pro- 
pelled throughout  the  body  in  the  arteries.  That 
it  then  grows  dark  and  returns  through  the  veins 
Harvey  believed,  but  no  one  could  tell  how,  until, 
forty  years  later,  Malpighi  with  his  microscope  de- 
tected the  capillaries.  Now  to  talk  about  Shake- 
speare discerning  as  if  by  instinct  a  truth  which 
Harvey  afterward  discovered  is  simply  siUy.  In- 
stead of  showing  rare  scientific  knowledge,  his 
remark  about  blood  running  in  the  veins  is  one 
that  anybody  might  have  made. 

This  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  ignorant  way 
in  which  doting  commentators  have  built  up  an 
impossible  Shakespeare,  until  at  last  they  have 
provoked  a  reaction.     Sooner  or  later  the  question 


402  A  Century  of  Science 

was  sure  to  arise,  Where  did  your  Stratford  boy 
get  all  this  abstruse  scientific  knowledge?  The 
keynote  was  perhaps  first  sounded  by  August  von 
Schlegel,  who  persuaded  himself  that  Shakespeare 
had  mastered  "  all  the  things  and  relations  of  this 
world,"  and  then  went  on  to  declare  that  the 
accepted  account  of  his  life  must  be  a  mere  fable. 
Thus  we  reach  the  point  from  which  Delia  Bacon 
started. 

It  may  safely  be  said  that  all  theories  of  Shake- 
speare's plays  which  suppose  them  to  be  attempts 
at  teaching  occult  philosophical  doctrines,  or  which 
endow  them  with  any  other  meanings  than  those 
which  their  words  directly  and  plainly  convey, 
are  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  Those  plays  were 
written,  not  to  teach  philosophy,  but  to  fill  the 
theatre  and  make  money.  They  were  written  by 
a  practised  actor  and  manager,  the  most  consum- 
mate master  of  dramatic  effects  that  ever  lived ; 
a  poet  unsurpassed  for  fertility  of  invention,  un- 
equalled for  melody  of  language,  unapproached  for 
delicacy  of  fancy,  inexhaustible  in  humour,  pro- 
foundest  of  moralists ;  a  man  who  knew  human 
nature  by  intuition,  as  Mozart  knew  counterpoint 
or  as  Chopin  knew  harmony.  The  name  of  that 
writer  was  none  other  than  William  Shakespeare 
of  Stratford-on-Avon. 


TJie  Bacon- Shakespeare  Folly  403 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  Bacon  folly,  after  once 
adopting  such  methods  as  those  of  Mrs.  Pott  and 
Mr.  Donnelly,  should  proceed  to  commit  suicide 
by  piling  up  extravagances.  By  such  methods  one 
can  prove  anything,  and  accordingly  we  find  these 
writers  busy  in  tracing  Bacon's  hand  in  the  writ- 
ings of  Greene,  Marlowe,  Shirley,  Marston,  Mas- 
singer,  Middleton,  and  "Webster.  They  are  sure 
that  he  was  the  author  of  Montaigne's  Essays, 
which  were  afterward  translated  into  what  we  have 
always  supposed  to  be  the  French  original.  Mr. 
Donnelly  believes  that  Bacon  also  wrote  Burton's 
"  Anatomy  of  Melancholy."  Next  comes  Dr.  Or- 
ville  Owen  with  a  new  cipher,  which  proves  that 
Bacon  was  the  son  of  Queen  Elizabeth  by  Robert 
Dudley,  and  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  "  Faerie 
Queene  "  and  other  poems  attributed  to  Edmund 
Spenser.  Finally  we  have  Mr.  J.  E.  Roe,  who 
does  not  mean  to  be  outdone.  He  asks  us  what 
we  are  to  think  of  the  notion  that  an  ignorant  tin- 
ker, like  John  Bunyan,  could  have  written  the 
most  perfect  allegory  in  any  language.  Perish  the 
thought !  Nobody  but  Bacon  could  have  done  it. 
Of  course  Bacon  had  been  more  than  fifty  years 
in  his  grave  when  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  was  pub- 
lished as  Bunyan's.  But  your  true  Baconizer  is 
never  stopped  by  trifles.     Mr.  Roe  assures  us  that 


404  A  Century  of  Science 

Bacon  wrote  that  heavenly  book,  as  well  as  "  Rob- 
inson Crusoe  "  and  the  "  Tale  of  a  Tub ; "  which 
surely  begins  to  make  him  seem  ubiquitous  and 
everlasting.  If  things  go  on  at  this  rate,  we  shall 
presently  have  a  religious  sect  holding  as  its  first 
article  of  faith  that  Francis  Bacon  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  in  six  days,  and  rested  on 
the  seventh  day. 

November,  1896.  \ 


XIV 
SOME  CRANKS   AND  THEIR  CROTCHETS 

"  Now,  by  two-headed  Janus, 
Nature  hath  framed  strange  fellows  in  her  time !  " 

Merchant  of  Venice,  I.  i. 

About  five-and-twenty  years  ago,  when  I  was 
assistant  librarian  at  Harvard  University,  much  cf 
my  time  was  occupied  in  revising  and  bringing 
toward  completion  the  gigantic  pair  of  twin  cata- 
logues —  of  authors  and  subjects  —  which  my  pre- 
decessor. Dr.  Ezra  Abbot,  had  started  in  1861. 
Twins  they  were  in  simultaneity  of  birth,  but  not 
in  hkeness  of  growth.  Naturally,  the  classified 
catalogue  was  much  bigger  than  its  brother,  filled 
more  drawers,  cost  more  money,  and  made  a  vast 
deal  more  trouble.  For  while  some  books  were 
easy  enough  to  classify,  others  were  not  at  all  easy, 
and  sometimes  curious  questions  would  arise. 

One  day,  for  example,  I  happened  to  be  looking 
at  a  pamphlet  on  the  value  of  Pi ;  and,  should  any 
of  my  readers  ask  what  that  might  mean,  I  should 
answer  that  Pi  (tt)  is  the  Greek  letter  which  geo- 


406  A  Century  of  Science 

meters  use  to  denote  the  ratio  of  the  circumference 
of  a  circle  to  its  diameter.  The  arithmetical  value 
of  this  symbol  is  3.1415926536,  and  so  on  in  an 
endless  fraction.  Is  it  not  hard  to  see  what  there 
can  be  in  such  an  innocent  decimal  to  irritate 
human  beings  and  destroy  their  peace  of  mind? 
Yet  so  it  is.  Many  a  human  life  has  been  wrecked 
upon  Pi.  To  a  certain  class  of  our  fellow-crea- 
tures its  existence  is  maddening.  It  interferes 
with  the  success  of  a  little  scheme  on  which  they 
have  set  their  hearts,  —  nothing  less  than  to  con- 
struct a  square  which  shall  be  exactly  equivalent 
in  dimensions  to  a  given  circle.  Nobody  has  ever 
done  such  a  thing,  for  it  cannot  be  done.  But 
when  mathematicians  tell  these  poor  people  that 
such  is  the  case,  they  howl  with  rage,  and,  dipping 
their  pens  in  gall,  write  book  after  book  bristling 
with  figures  to  prove  that  they  have  "  squared  the 
circle."  The  Harvard  library  does  not  buy  such 
books,  but  it  accepts  all  manner  of  gifts,  and  has 
thus  come  to  contain  some  queer  things. 

When  I  consulted  the  subject  catalogue,  to  see 
under  what  head  it  had  been  customary  to  classify 
these  lucubrations  on  Pi,  I  found,  sure  enough, 
that  it  was  Mathematics  §  Circle-Squaring.  Fol- 
lowing this  cue,  I  explored  the  drawers  in  other 
directions,  and  found  that  books  on   "perpetual 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        407 

motion"  formed  a  section  under  Physics,  while 
crazy  interpretations  of  the  book  of  Daniel  were 
grouped  along  with  works  of  solid  Biblical  scholar- 
ship by  such  eminent  writers  as  Keuss  and  Kuenen 
and  Cheyne.  Clearly,  here  was  a  case  for  reform. 
The  principle  of  classification  was  faulty.  In  one 
sense,  the  treatment  of  the  quadrature  of  the  circle 
may  be  regarded  as  a  section  under  the  general 
head  of  mathematics ;  as,  for  example,  when  Lin- 
demann,  in  1882,  showed  that  Pi  cannot  be  repre- 
sented as  the  root  of  any  algebraic  equation  with 
rational  coefficients.  But  our  circle-squaring  liter- 
ature is  very  different.  It  is  usually  written  by 
persons  whose  mathematical  horizon  scarcely  ex- 
tends beyond  long  division :  just  as  the  writers  on 
perpetual  motion  know  nothing  of  physics  ;  just  as 
so  many  expositors  have  dealt  with  the  ten-horned 
beast  in  blissful  ignorance  alike  of  ancient  history 
and  of  the  principles  of  literary  criticism.  What 
all  such  books  illustrate,  however  various  may  be 
their  ostensible  themes,  is  the  pathology  of  the 
human  mind.  They  are  specimens  of  Insane  Liter- 
ature. As  such  they  have  a  certain  sort  of  inter- 
est ;  and  to  any  rational  being  it  is  the  only  sort 
they  can  have. 

So  I  culled  from  many  a  little  drawer  the  cards 
appertaining  to  divers  printed  products  of  morbid 


408  A  Century  of  Science 

cerebration,  and  gathered  them  into  a  class  of 
Insane  Literature ;  and  under  this  rubric  such  sec- 
tions as  Circle-Squaring,  Perpetual  Motion,  Great 
Pyramid,  Earth  not  a  Globe,  etc.,  were  evidently 
in  their  proper  place.  The  name  of  the  class  was 
duly  inscribed  on  the  outside  of  its  drawer,  and 
the  matter  seemed  happily  disposed  of. 

The  way  of  the  reformer,  however,  is  beset  with 
difficulties,  and  it  is  seldom  that  his  first  efforts 
are  crowned  with  entire  success.  Not  many  days 
had  elapsed  since  this  emendation  of  the  catalogue, 
when  one  of  my  assistants  brought  me  the  card  of 
a  book  on  the  Apocalypse,  by  a  certain  Mr.  Small- 
wit,  and  called  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  was 
classified  as  Insane  Literature. 

"  Very  well,"  I  said,  "  so  it  is." 

"I  don't  doubt  it,  sir,"  said  she;  "but  the 
author  lives  over  in  Chelsea,  and  I  saw  him  this 
morning  in  one  of  the  alcoves.  Perhaps,  if  he 
were  to  look  in  the  catalogue  and  see  how  his  book 
is  classified,  he  might  n't  altogether  like  it.  Then, 
as  I  looked  a  little  further  along  the  cards,  I  came 
upon  this  pamphlet  by  Herr  Dummkopf,  of  Bres- 
lau,  upsetting  the  law  of  gravitation;  and  —  do 
you  know?  —  Herr  Dummkopf  is  spending  the 
winter  here  in  Cambridge  !  " 

"  To  be  sure,"  said  I,  "  it  was  very  stupid  of  me 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        409 

not  to  foresee  such  cases.  Of  course  we  can't  call 
a  man  a  fool  to  his  face.  In  a  catalogue  which 
marshals  the  quick  along  with  the  dead  some  heed 
must  be  paid  to  the  amenities  of  life.  Pray  get 
and  bring  me  all  those  cards." 

By  the  time  they  arrived  a  satisfactory  solution 
of  the  difficulty  had  suggested  itseK.  I  told  the 
assistant  simply  to  scratch  out  "  Insane,"  and  put 
"  Eccentric  "  instead.  For  while  the  harsh  Latin 
epithet  would  of  course  infuriate  Messrs.  Dumm- 
kopf,  Smallwit  &  Co.,  it  might  be  doubted  if  their 
feelings  would  be  hurt  by  the  milder  Greek  word. 
Some  people  of  their  stripe,  to  whom  notoriety  is 
the  very  breath  of  their  nostrils,  would  consider  it 
a  mark  of  distinction  to  be  called  eccentric.  At 
aU  events,  the  harshness  would  be  delicately  veiled 
under  a  penumbra  of  ambiguity. 

Thus  the  class  Eccentric  Literature  was  estab- 
lished in  our  catalogue,  and  there  it  has  remained, 
while  the  books  in  the  library  have  increased  from 
a  hundred  thousand  to  haK  a  million.  Once  or 
twice,  I  am  told,  has  some  disgusted  author  uttered 
a  protest,  but  the  quiet  of  Gore  Hall  has  not  been 
disturbed  thereby.  Care  is  needed  in  treating 
such  a  subject,  and  my  rule  was  that  no  amount 
of  mere  absurdity,  no  extremity  of  dissent  from 
generally  received  opinions,  should  consign  a  book 


410  A  Century  of  Science 

to  the  class  of  Eccentric  Literature,  unless  it 
showed  unmistakable  symptoms  of  crankery,  or  the 
buzzing  of  a  bee  in  the  author's  bonnet.  This  rule 
has  been  strictly  followed.  One  lot  of  books  — 
the  Bacon-Shakespeare  stuff  —  which  I  intended  to 
put  in  this  class,  but  forgot  to  do  so  because  of 
sore  stress  of  work,  still  remain  absurdly  grouped 
along  with  the  books  on  Shakespeare  written  by 
men  in  their  senses.  With  this  exception,  the 
class  offers  us  a  fairly  comprehensive  view  of  the 
literature  of  cranks. 

Just  where  the  line  should  be  drawn  between 
sanity  and  crankery  is  not  always  easy  to  deter- 
mine, and  must  usually  be  left  to  soundness  of  judg- 
ment in  each  particular  case,  as  with  so  many 
other  questions  of  all  grades,  from  the  supreme 
court  down  to  the  kitchen.  One  of  the  most  fre- 
quent traits  of  your  crank  is  his  megalomania,  or 
self-magnification.  His  intellectual  equipment  is 
so  slender  that  he  cannot  see  wherein  he  is  infe- 
rior to  Descartes  or  Newton.  Without  enough 
knowledge  to  place  him  in  the  sixth  form  of  a 
grammar  school,  he  will  assail  the  conclusions  of 
the  greatest  minds  the  world  has  seen.  His  mood 
is  belligerent ;  since  people  will  not  take  him  at 
his  own  valuation,  he  is  apt  to  regard  society  as 
engaged  in  a  conspiracy  to  ignore  and  belittle  him. 


Some  Cranhs  and  their  Crotchets        411 

Of  humour  lie  is  pretty  sure  to  be  destitute;  an 
abounding  sense  of  the  ludicrous  is  one  of  the  best 
safeguards  of  mental  health,  and  even  a  slight 
endowment  will  usually  nip  and  stunt  the  fungus 
growth  of  crankery. 

The  slightest  ghmmering  sense  of  humour  would 
have  restrained  that  inveterate  circle-squarer,  James 
Smith,  from  publishing  (in  1865)  his  pamphlet  en- 
titled "  The  British  Association  in  Jeopardy,  and 
Dr.  Whewell,  the  Master  of  Trinity,  in  the  Stocks 
without  Hope  of  Escape."  His  case,  with  those  of 
many  other  ingenious  lunatics,  was  racily  set  forth 
by  the  late  Professor  De  Morgan  in  his  "  Budget 
of  Paradoxes  "  (London,  1872),  a  bulky  book  deal- 
ing with  the  author's  personal  experiences  with 
cranks  and  their  crotchets.  It  was  De  Morgan's 
lot  as  an  eminent  mathematician  to  be  outrageously 
bored  by  circle-squarers  and  their  kin,  and  it  was 
a  happy  thought  to  put  on  record  the  queer  things 
that  happened.  His  friends  asked  him  again  and 
again  why  he  took  the  trouble  to  mention  and 
expose  such  absurdities.  He  repKed  that,  when 
your  crank  publishes  a  book  "  full  of  figures  which 
few  readers  can  criticise,  a  great  many  people  are 
staggered  to  this  extent,  that  they  imagine  there 
must  be  the  indefinite  something  in  the  mysterious 
all  this.     They  are  brought  to  the  point  of  sus- 


412  A  Century  of  Science 

picion  that  the  mathematicians  ought  not  to  treat 
all  this  with  such  undisguised  contempt,  at  least. 
Now  I  have  no  fear  for  tt  ;  but  I  do  think  it  pos- 
sible that  general  opinion  might  in  time  demand 
that  the  crowd  of  circle-squarers,  etc.,  should  be 
admitted  to  the  honours  of  opposition;  and  this 
would  be  a  time-tax  of  five  per  cent,  one  man  with 
another,  upon  those  who  are  better  employed."  At 
any  rate,  continues  De  Morgan,  with  a  twinkle  in 
the  corner  of  his  eye,  whether  in  chastising  cranks 
he  has  any  motive  but  public  good  "  must  be  re- 
ferred to  those  who  can  decide  whether  a  mis- 
sionary chooses  his  pursuit  solely  to  convert  the 
heathen."  He  confesses  that  perhaps  he  may  have 
a  little  of  the  spirit  of  Colonel  Quagg,  whose  prin- 
ciple of  action  was  thus  succinctly  expressed :  "  I 
licks  ye  because  I  kin,  and  because  I  like,  and 
because  ye  's  critters  that  licks  is  good  for !  " 

Among  the  creatures  whose  malady  seemed  to 
call  for  such  drastic  treatment  was  Captain  For- 
man,  R.  N.,  who  in  1833  wrote  against  the  law  of 
gravitation,  and  got  not  a  word  of  notice.  Then 
he  wrote  to  Sir  John  Herschel  and  Lord  Brougham, 
asking  them  to  get  his  book  reviewed  in  some  of 
the  quarterlies.  Receiving  no  answer  from  these 
gentlemen,  he  addressed  in  one  of  the  newspapers 
a  card  to  Lord  John  Russell,  inveighing  against 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        413 

their  "dishonest"  behaviour.  Still  getting  no  sat- 
isfaction, the  valorous  captain  wrote  to  the  Koyal 
Astronomical  Society  with  a  challenge  to  con- 
troversy. To  this  letter  came  a  polite  but  brief 
answer,  advising  him  to  study  the  rudiments  of 
mechanics.  It  was  not  in  the  paradoxer's  nature  to 
submit  tamely  to  such  treatment;  and  he  replied 
in  a  printed  pamphlet,  wherein  he  called  that 
learned  society  "  craven  dunghill  cocks,"  and  be- 
strewed them  with  other  choice  flowers  of  rhetoric, 
much  to  the  relief  of  his  feehngs. 

One  of  this  naval  officer's  fellow  sufferers  was  a 
farm  labourer,  who  took  it  into  his  head  that  the 
Lord  Chancellor  had  offered  £100,000  reward  to 
any  one  who  should  square  the  circle.  So  Hodge 
went  to  work  and  squared  it,  and  then  hied  him 
to  London,  blissfully  dreaming  of  sudden  wealth. 
Hearing  that  De  Morgan  was  a  great  mathemati- 
cian, he  left  his  papers  with  him,  including  a  letter 
to  the  Lord  Chancellor,  claiming  the  XI 00,0 00. 
De  Morgan  returned  the  papers  with  a  note,  say- 
ing that  no  such  prize  had  ever  been  offered,  and 
gently  hinting  that  the  worthy  Hodge  had  not 
sufficient  knowledge  to  see  in  what  the  problem 
consisted.  This  elicited  from  the  rustic  philosopher 
a  long  letter,  from  which  I  must  quote  a  few  sen- 
tences, so  characteristic  of  the  circle-squaring  talent 
and  temper :  — 


414  A  Century  of  Science 

Doctor  Morgan,  Sir.     Permit  me  to  address  you 

Brute  Creation  may  perhaps  enjoy  the  faculty  of 
beholding  visible  things  with  a  more  penitrating 
eye  than  ourselves.  But  Spiritual  objects  are  as 
far  out  of  their  reach  as  though  they  had  no  being 
Nearest  therefore  to  the  brute  Creation  are  those 
men  who  Suppose  themselves  to  be  so  far  governed 
by  external  objects  as  to  believe  nothing  but  what 
they  See  and  feel  And  Can  accomedate  to  their 
Shallow  understanding  and  Imaginations 

.  .  .  When  a  Gentleman  of  your  Standing  in 
Society  .  .  .  Can  not  understand  or  Solve  a  pro- 
blem That  is  explicitly  explained  by  words  and 
Letters  and  mathematacally  operated  by  figuers 
He  had  best  consult  the  wise  proverd 

Do  that  which  thou  Canst  understand  and  Com- 
prehend for  thy  good. 

I  would  recommend  that  Such  Gentleman 
Change  his  business 

And  appropriate  his  time  and  attention  to  a 
Sunday  School  to  Learn  what  he  Could  and  keep 
the  Litle  Children  form  durting  their  Close 

With  Sincere  feelings  of  Gratitude  for  your 
weakness  and  Inability  I  am 

Sir  your  Superior  in  Mathematics. 

X.  Y. 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        415 

A  few  days  after  this  elegant  epistle  there  came 
to  De  Morgan  another  from  the  same  hand. 
Hodge  had  sent  his  papers  to  some  easy-going 
American  professor,  whose  reply  must  clearly  have 
been  too  polite.  It  is  never  safe  to  give  your 
crank  an  inch  of  comfort ;  it  will  straightway  be- 
come an  ell  of  assurance.  This  American  savant, 
crows  Rusticus,  "highly  approves  of  my  work. 
And  Says  he  will  Insure  me  Reward  in  the  States 
I  write  this  that  you  may  understand  that  I  have 
knowledge  of  the  unfair  way  that  I  am  treated  in 
my  own  nati  County  I  am  told  and  have  reasons 
to  believe  that  it  is  the  Clergy  that  treat  me  so 
unjust.  I  am  not  Desirious  of  heaping  Disonors 
upon  my  own  nation.  But  if  I  have  to  Leave  this 
kingdom  without  my  Just  dues.  The  world  Shall 
know  how  I  am  and  have  been  treated 

"  I  am  Sir  Desirous  of  my  Just  dues 

"X.  Y." 

A  cynical  philosopher  once  said  that  you  can- 
not find  so  big  a  fool  but  there  wiU  be  some  bigger 
fool  to  swear  by  him ;  and  so  our  agricultural 
friend  had  his  admiring  disciple  who  felt  bound  to 
break  a  lance  for  him  with  the  unappreciative  De 
Morgan :  — 

"  He  has  done  what  you  nor  any  other  mathema- 
tician as  those  who  call  themselves  such  have  done. 


416  A  Century  of  Science 

And  what  is  the  reason  that  you  will  not  candidly 
acknowledge  to  him  .  .  .  that  he  has  squared  the 
circle  shall  I  tell  you  ?  it  is  because  he  has  per- 
formed the  feat  to  obtain  the  glory  of  which  mathe- 
maticians have  battled  from  time  immemorial  that 
they  might  encircle  their  brows  with  a  wreath  of 
laurels  far  more  glorious  than  ever  conqueror  won 
it  is  simply  this  that  it  is  a  poor  man  a  humble 
artisan  who  has  gained  that  victory  that  you  don't 
like  to  acknowledge  it  you  don't  like  to  be  beaten 
and  worse  to  acknowledge  that  you  have  miscalcu- 
lated, you  have  in  short  too  small  a  soul  to  acknow- 
ledge that  he  is  right.  ...  I  am  backed  in  my 
opinion  not  only  by  Mr.  Q,  a  mathematician  and 
watchmaker  residing  in  the  boro  of  Southwark  but 
by  no  less  an  authority  than  the  Professor  of  mathe- 
matics of  .  .  .  College  United  States  Mr.  Q  and 
I  presume  that  he  at  least  is  your  equal  as  an 
authority  and  Mr.  Q  says  that  the  government  of 
the  U.  S.  will  recompense  X.  Y.  for  the  discovery 
he  has  made  if  so  what  a  reflection  upon  Old  eng- 
land  the  boasted  land  of  freedom  the  nursery  of 
the  arts  and  sciences  that  her  sons  are  obliged  to 
go  to  a  foreign  country  to  obtain  that  recompense 
to  which  they  are  justly  entitled."  ^ 

Ordinarily,  the  aim  of  the  paradoxers  is  to  achieve 
1  Budget  of  Paradoxes,  pp.  9,  178,  259,  260,  336. 


Some  C7'anhs  and  their  Crotchets        417 

renown  by  doing  what  nobody  ever  did.  Hence 
the  fascination  exercised  upon  them  by  those  ap- 
parently simple  problems  which  already  in  ancient 
times  were  recognized  as  "  old  stickers,"  the  quad- 
rature of  the  circle,  the  trisection  of  angles,  and 
the  duplicature  of  the  cube.  The  ancients  found 
these  geometric  problems  insolvable,  though  it  was 
left  for  modern  algebra  to  point  out  the  reason, 
namely,  that  no  quantities  can  be  geometrically 
constructed  from  given  quantities,  except  such  as 
can  be  formed  from  them  algebraically  by  the  solu- 
tion of  quadratic  equations ;  if  the  algebraic  solution 
comes  as  the  root  of  a  cubic  or  biquadratic  equation, 
it  cannot  be  constructed  by  geometry.  Against 
this  hopeless  wall  the  crowd  of  paradoxers  will 
doubtless  continue  to  break  their  heads  until  the 
millennium  dawns. 

Sometimes,  however,  our  crank  has  a  practical 
end  in  view,  as  in  the  numerous  attempts  to  dis- 
cover "  perpetual  motion,"  or,  in  other  words,  to 
invent  a  machine  out  of  which  you  can  get  indefi- 
nitely more  energy  than  you  put  in.  It  is  not 
strange  that  many  thousands  of  dollars  have  been 
wasted  in  this  effort  to  recover  Aladdin's  lost  lamp. 
The  notorious  Keely  motor  is  but  one  of  a  host  of 
contrivances  born  and  bred  of  crass  ignorance  of 
the  alphabet  of  dynamics.     But  perpetual  motion 


418  A  Century  of  Science 

is  not  the  only  form  assumed  by  wealth-seeking 
crankery.  In  1861  a  Captain  Roblin,  of  Nor- 
mandy, having  ascertained  to  his  own  satisfaction, 
from  the  prolonged  study  of  the  zodiac  of  Dende- 
rah,  the  sites  of  sundry  gold-mines,  came  forward 
with  proposals  for  a  joint  stock  company  to  dig 
and  be  rich.  The  labours  of  Herr  Johannes  von 
Gumpach  were  of  a  more  philanthropic  turn.  He 
published  in  1861  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  A  Mil- 
lion's Worth  of  Property  and  Five  Hundred  Lives 
annually  lost  at  Sea  by  the  Theory  of  Gravitation. 
A  Letter  on  the  True  Figure  of  the  Earth,  ad- 
dressed to  the  Astronomer  Koyal."  Next  year 
this  pamphlet  grew  into  a  stout  volume.  It  main- 
tained that  a  great  many  shipwrecks  were  occa^ 
sioned  by  errors  of  navigation  due  to  an  erroneous 
conception  of  the  shape  of  the  earth.  Since  New- 
ton's time,  it  has  been  supposed  to  be  flattened  at 
the  poles,  whereas  the  amiable  Gumpach  calls  upon 
his  feUow-creatures  to  take  notice  that  it  is  elon- 
gated, and  to  mend  their  ways  accordingly. 

The  desire  to  prove  great  men  wrong  is  one  of 
the  crank's  most  frequent  and  powerful  incentives. 
The  name  of  Newton  is  the  greatest  in  the  history 
of  science :  how  flattering  to  one's  self  it  must  be, 
then,  to  prove  him  a  fool !  In  eccentric  literature 
the  books  against  Newton  are  legion.     Here  is  a 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        419 

title :  "  David  and  Goliath,  or  an  Attempt  to  prove 
that  the  Newtonian  System  of  Astronomy  is 
directly  opposed  to  the  Scriptures.  By  William 
Lander,  Mere,  Wilts,  1833."  And  here  is  De 
Morgan's  terse  summary  of  the  book :  "  Newton 
is  Goliath ;  Mr.  Lander  is  David.  David  took 
five  pebbles  ;  Mr.  Lander  takes  five  arguments. 
He  expects  opposition ;  for  Paul  and  Jesus  both 
met  with  it." 

There  are  few  subjects  over  which  cranks  are 
more  painfully  exercised  than  the  figure  of  the 
earth,  and  its  relations  to  heavenly  bodies.  Aristo- 
tle proved  that  the  earth  is  a  globe ;  Copernicus 
showed  that  it  is  one  of  a  system  of  planets  revolv- 
ing about  the  sun ;  Newton  explained  the  dynamics 
of  this  system.  But  at  length  came  a  certain 
John  Hampden,  who  with  dauntless  breast  main- 
tained that  all  this  is  wrong  !  His  pamphlet  was 
prudently  dedicated  "to  the  unprofessional  pub- 
lic and  the  common  sense  men  of  Europe  and 
America;  "  he  knew  that  it  could  find  no  favor 
with  bigoted  men  of  science.  This  Hampden,  like 
his  great  namesake,  is  nothing  if  not  bold.  "  The 
Newtonian  or  Copernican  theory,"  he  tells  us, 
"  from  the  first  hour  of  its  invention,  has  never 
dared  to  submit  to  an  appeal  to  facts  !  "  Again, 
"  Defenders  it    never   had ;    and   no    threats,    no 


420  A  Century  of  Science 

taunts  or  exposure,  will  ever  rouse  the  energies  of 
a  single  champion."  In  other  words,  astronomers 
do  not  waste  their  time  in  noticing  Mr.  Hampden's 
taunts  and  threats.  Why  is  this  so  ?  His  next 
sentence  reminds  us  that  "  cowardice  always  ac- 
companies conscious  guilt."  He  goes  on  to  tell 
us  the  true  state  of  the  case:  "The  earth,  as  it 
came  from  the  hands  of  its  Almighty  Creator,  is  a 
motionless  Plane,  based  and  built  upon  foundations 
which  the  Word  of  God  expressly  declares  cannot 
be  searched  out  or  discovered.  .  .  .  The  stars  are 
hardly  bigger  than  the  gas  jets  which  light  our 
streets,  and,  if  they  could  be  made  to  change  places 
with  them,  no  astronomer  could  detect  the  differ- 
ence." The  North  Pole  is  the  centre  of  the  flat 
earth,  and  its  extreme  southern  limit  is  not  a 
South  Pole,  but  a  circle  30,000  miles  in  circum- 
ference. Night  is  caused  by  the  sun  passing  be- 
hind a  layer  of  clouds  7000  miles  thick.  It  is  not 
gravitation  which  makes  a  river  run  down  hill, 
but  the  impetus  of  the  water  behind  pressing  on 
the  water  before.  Is  not  this  delicious  ?  As  for 
Newton,  poor  feUow,  he  "  lived  in  a  superstitious 
age  and  district ;  he  was  educated  among  an  illit- 
erate peasantry."  This  is  like  the  way  in  which 
the  Baconizing  cranks  dispose  of  Shakespeare.  So 
zealous  was  Mr.  Hampden  that  in  1876  he  began 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        421 

publishing  a  periodical  called  "  The  Truth  Seeker's 
Oracle."  Similar  views  were  set  forth  by  one 
Samuel  Rowbotham,  who  wrote  under  the  name 
of  "  Parallax,"  and  by  a  William  Carpenter,  whose 
pamphlet,  "One  Hundred  Proofs  that  the  Earth 
is  not  a  Globe  "  (Baltimore,  1885),  is  quite  a  curi- 
osity ;  for  example.  Proof  33  :  "If  the  earth  were 
a  globe,  people  —  except  those  on  top  —  would  cer- 
tainly have  to  be  fastened  to  its  surface  by  some 
means  or  other ;  .  .  .  but  as  we  know  that  we 
simply  walk  on  its  surface,  without  any  other  aid 
than  that  which  is  necessary  for  locomotion  on  a 
plane,  it  follows  that  we  have  herein  a  conclusive 
proof  that  Earth  is  not  a  globe."  Since  Mr.  Car- 
penter understands  the  matter  so  thoroughly,  can 
we  wonder  at  the  earnestness  with  which  he  re- 
bukes the  late  Richard  Proctor  ?  "  Mr.  Proctor, 
we  charge  you  that,  whilst  you  teach  the  theory 
of  the  earth's  rotundity,  you  know  that  it  is  a 
plane  !  " 

More  original  than  Messrs.  Hampden  and  Car- 
penter are  the  writers  who  maintain  that  the  earth 
is  hollow,  and  supports  a  teeming  population  in  its 
interior.  Early  in  the  present  century  this  idea 
came  with  the  force  of  a  revelation  to  the  mind 
of  Captain  John  Cleves  Symmes,  a  retired  army 
officer  engaged  in  trade  at  St.  Louis.     In  1818 


422  A  Century  of  Science 

he  issued  a  circular,  of  wliicli  the  following  is  an 
abridgment :  "  To  all  the  world  I  declare  the 
earth  is  hollow  and  habitable  within  ;  containing 
a  number  of  solid  concentric  spheres,  one  within 
the  other,  and  that  it  is  open  at  the  poles  twelve 
or  sixteen  degrees.  I  pledge  my  life  in  support 
of  this  truth,  and  am  ready  to  explore  the  hollow, 
if  the  world  wiU  support  and  aid  me  in  the  under- 
taking. .  .  .  My  terms  are  [Hear,  Messrs.  Quay 
and  Piatt !  and  give  ear,  O  Tammany  !]  the  pat- 
ronage of  THIS  and  the  new  worlds.  ...  I 
select  Dr.  S.  L.  Mitchell,  Sir  H.  Davy,  and  Baron 
Alexander  von  Humboldt  as  my  protectors.  I  ask 
one  hundred  brave  companions,  well  equipped,  to 
start  from  Siberia,  in  the  fall  season,  with  reindeer 
and  sleighs,  on  the  ice  of  the  frozen  sea.  I  engage 
we  find  a  warm  and  rich  land,  stocked  with  thrifty 
vegetables  and  animals,  if  not  men,  on  reaching 
one  degree  northward  of  latitude  82°.  We  will 
return  in  the  succeeding  spring." 

This  circular  was  sent  by  mail  to  men  of  science, 
colleges,  learned  societies,  legislatures,  and  mu- 
nicipal bodies,  all  over  the  United  States  and 
Europe ;  for  when  it  comes  to  postage,  your  crank 
seems  always  to  have  unlimited  funds  at  his  dis- 
posal. At  Paris,  the  distinguished  traveller.  Count 
Volney,  doubtless   with   a  significant  shrug,  pre- 


Some  Cranks  and  their   Crotchets       423 

sented  the  precious  document  to  the  Academy  of 
Sciences,  by  which  it  was  mirthfully  laid  upon  the 
table.  Nowhere  did  learned  men  take  it  seriously ; 
it  was  generally  set  down  as  a  rather  stupid  hoax. 
But,  nothing  daunted  by  such  treatment,  the 
worthy  Symmes  began  giving  lectures  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  succeeded  in  making  some  impression 
upon  an  uninstructed  public.  In  1824  his  audi- 
ence at  Hamilton,  Ohio,  at  the  close  of  a  lecture, 
"  resolved^  that  we  esteem  Symmes'  Theory  of  the 
Earth  deserving  of  serious  examination  and  worthy 
of  the  attention  of  the  American  people."  At  a 
theatre  in  Cincinnati,  a  benefit  was  given  for  the 
proposed  polar  expedition,  and  verses  were  recited 
suitable  to  the  occasion  :  — 

"  Has  not  Columbia  one  aspiring-  son 
By  whom  the  unfading  laurel  may  be  won  ? 
Yes  !  history's  pen  may  yet  inscribe  the  name 
Of  Symmes  to  grace  her  future  scroll  of  fame." 

The  captain's  petitions  to  Congress,  however,  pray- 
ing for  ships  and  men,  were  heartlessly  laid  on  the 
table,  and  nothing  was  left  him  but  to  keep  on  cry- 
ing in  the  wilderness,  which  he  did  until  his  death 
in  1829.  In  the  cemetery  at  Hamilton,  the  free- 
stone monument  over  his  grave,  placed  there  by 
his  son,  Americus  Symmes,  is  surmounted  with  a 
hollow  globe,  open  at  the  poles. 


424  A  Century  of  Science 

Half  a  century  later  the  son  published  a  pam- 
phlet,^ in  which  he  gave  a  somewhat  detailed 
exposition  of  his  father's  notions.  From  this  we 
learn  that  the  interior  world  is  well  lighted ;  for 
the  sun's  rays,  passing  through  '^  the  dense  cold  air 
of  the  verges  "  (that  is,  the  circular  edge  of  the 
big  polar  hole),  are  powerfully  refracted,  and  after 
getting  inside  they  are  forthwith  reflected  from  one 
concave  surface  to  another,  with  the  result  that 
the  whole  interior  is  illuminated  with  a  light  equal 
to  3600  times  that  of  the  full  moon.  We  learn, 
too,  that  the  famous  Swedish  geographer,  Norpens- 
jould  (^semper  sic  .^),  after  passing  the  magnetic 
pole,  found  a  timbered  country  with  large  rivers 
and  abundant  animal  life.  Afterward  one  Cap- 
tain Wiggins  visited  this  country,  where  he  found 
flax  and  wheat,  highly  magnetic  iron  ore,  and  rich 
mines  of  copper  and  gold.  The  trees  are  as  big 
as  any  in  California;  hides,  wool,  tallow,  ivory, 
and  furs  abound.  The  inhabitants  are  very  tall, 
with  Roman  noses,  and  speak  Hebrew.  Yes, 
echoes  Captain  Tuttle,  an  old  whaler,  who  also  has 
visited  this  new  country,  they  speak  Hebrew,  and 
are  a  smart  people.  "  Would  it  not  be  logical," 
writes  Americus,  "  to  think  that  this  was  one  of 

^  The  Theory  of  Concentric  Spheres,  Louisville,  1878 ;   second 
edition,  1885. 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        425 

the  lost  tribes  of  Israel?  for  we  read  in  the  Bible 
that  they  went  up  the  Euphrates  to  the  north  and 
dwelt  in  a  land  where  man  never  dwelt  before." 
Just  so ;  evidently,  Messrs.  "  Norpensjould," 
Wiggins,  and  Tuttle  sailed  "  across  the  verge  "  and 
into  the  interior  country,  the  concave  world,  which 
shall  henceforth  be  known  as  Symmzonia!  The 
book  ends  with  the  triumphant  query,  "  Where 
were  those  explorers  if  not  in  the  Hollow  of  the 
Earth,  and  would  they  not  have  come  out  at  the 
South  Pole  if  they  had  continued  on  their  course  ?  " 
It  is  sad  to  have  such  positive  conclusions  dis- 
puted, but  even  in  eccentric  lore  the  doctors  are 
found  to  disagree.  Scarcely  had  Americus  put 
forth  his  revised  edition,  when  a  pamphlet  entitled 
"The  Inner  World,"  by  Frederick  Culmer,  was 
published  at  Salt  Lake  City  (1886).  Its  chapters 
have  resounding  titles  :  "I.  The  Universal  Vacuity 
of  Centres ;  II.  The  Polar  Orifices  of  the  Earth ; 
III.  The  Alleged  Northwest  Passage  and  Symmes' 
Hole."  We  are  told  that  although  the  polar  ori- 
fices have  diameters  of  about  a  thousand  miles 
each,  nevertheless,  in  spite  of  Wiggins  and  Tuttle, 
"  there  is  no  passage  to  the  inner  world  on  the 
north  of  America ; "  on  the  contrary,  it  must  be 
sought  within  the  antarctic  circle.  But  Mr.  Cul- 
mer would  discourage  rash  attempts  at  exploration, 


426  A  Century  of  Science 

and  believes  that  "  no  man  will  be  able  to  plant  the 
standard  of  his  country  on  any  land  in  that  region 
worth  one  dime  to  himself  or  any  one  else  at  pre- 
sent." For  this  gloomy  outlook  we  must  try  to 
console  ourselves  with  the  knowledge  that  Mr. 
Culmer  has  detected  the  true  explanation  of  the 
Aurora  Borealis :  "  It  is  the  sun's  rays  shining  on 
a  placid  interior  ocean  and  reflecting  upon  the 
outer  atmosphere." 

A  favourite  occupation  of  cranks  is  the  discovery 
of  hidden  meanings  in  things.  Whether  we  are 
to  say  that  the  passionate  quest  of  the  occult  has 
been  prolific  in  mental  disturbances,  or  whether  we 
had  better  say  that  persons  with  ill-balanced  minds 
take  especial  delight  in  the  search  for  the  occult, 
the  practical  result  is  about  the  same.  The  im- 
pelling motive  is  not  very  different  from  that  of 
the  circle-squarers ;  it  is  pleasing  to  one's  self-love 
to  feel  that  one  discerns  things  to  which  all  other 
people  are  bhnd.  Hence  the  number  of  mare's- 
nests  that  have  been  complacently  stared  into  by 
learned  donkeys  is  legion.  Mere  erudition  is  no 
sure  safeguard  against  the  subtle  forms  wliich  the 
temptation  takes  on,  as  we  may  see  from  the  inge- 
nuity that  has  been  wasted  on  the  Great  Pyramid. 
In  1864,  Piazzi  Smyth,  Astronomer  Royal  for 
Scotland,  published  his  book  entitled  "  Our  Inker- 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        4,21 

itance  in  the  Great  Pyramid,"  and  afterward  fol- 
lowed it  with  other  similar  books.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  original  complexion  of  this  gentle- 
man's mind,  it  was  not  such  as  to  prevent  his 
attaining  distinction  and  achieving  usefulness  as  a 
practical  astronomer.  But  the  pyramids  were  too 
much  for  his  mental  equilibrium.  As  De  Morgan 
kindly  puts  it,  "  his  work  on  Egypt  is  paradox  of 
a  very  high  order,  backed  by  a  great  quantity  of 
useful  labour,  the  results  of  which  will  be  made 
available  by  those  who  do  not  receive  the  para- 
doxes." 

The  pyramidal  tombs  of  Egyptian  kings  were  an 
evolution  in  stone  or  brick  from  the  tumulus  of 
earth  which  in  prehistoric  ages  was  heaped  over 
the  body  of  the  war  chief.  They  are  objects  of 
rare  dignity  and  interest,  not  only  from  their  im- 
mense size,  but  from  sundry  peculiarities  in  their 
construction.  In  their  orientation  great  care  was 
taken,  though  usually  with  imperfect  success. 
Their  sides  face  the  four  cardinal  points,  and  the 
descending  entry-way  forms  a  kind  of  telescope, 
from  the  bottom  of  which  an  observer,  sixty  cen- 
turies ago,  could  look  out  at  what  was  then  the 
polestar.  These  and  other  features  of  the  pyra- 
mids are  no  doubt  connected  with  Egyptian  reli- 
gion, and  may  very  likely  have  subserved  astrolo- 


428  A  Century  of  Science 

gical  purposes.     But  what  say  the  pyramid  cranks, 
or  "  pyramidalists,"  as  they  have  been  called  ? 

According  to  them,  the  builders  of  the  Great 
Pyramid  were  supernaturally  instructed,  probably 
by  Melchizedek,  King  of  Salem.  Thus  they  were 
enabled  to  place  it  in  latitude  30°  N. ;  to  make  its 
four  sides  face  the  cardinal  points ;  to  adopt  the 
sacred  cubit,  or  one  twenty  millionth  part  of  the 
earth's  polar  axis,  as  their  unit  of  length;  "  and  to 
make  the  side  of  the  square  base  equal  to  just  so 
many  of  these  sacred  cubits  as  there  are  days  and 
parts  of  a  day  in  a  year.  They  were  further  by 
supernatural  help  enabled  to  square  the  circle,  and 
symbolized  their  victory  over  this  problem  by  mak- 
ing the  pyramid's  height  bear  to  the  perimeter  of 
the  base  the  ratio  which  the  radius  of  a  circle 
bears  to  the  circumference."  ^  In  like  manner,  by 
immediate  divine  revelation,  the  builders  of  the 
pyramid  were  instructed  as  to  the  exact  shape  and 
density  of  the  earth,  the  sun's  distance,  the  preces- 
sion of  the  equinoxes,  etc.,  so  that  their  figures  on 
all  these  subjects  were  more  accurate  than  any 
that  modern  science  has  obtained,  and  these  figures 
they  built  into  the  pyramid.  They  also  built  into 
it  the  divinely  revealed  and  everlasting  standards 
of  "length,  area,  capacity,  weight,  density,  heat, 

1  Proctor,  The  Great  Pyramid,  p.  43. 


Some  Cranhs  and  their  Crotchets        429 

time,  and  money,"  and  finallj  they  wrought  into 
its  structure  the  precise  date  at  which  the  mil- 
lennium is  to  begin.  All  this  valuable  informa- 
tion, handed  down  directly  from  heaven,  was  thus 
securely  bottled  up  in  the  Great  Pyramid  for  six 
thousand  years  or  so,  awaiting  the  auspicious  day 
when  Mr.  Piazzi  Smyth  should  come  and  draw  the 
cork.  Why  so  much  knowledge  should  have  been 
bestowed  upon  the  architects  of  King  Cheops,  only 
to  be  concealed  from  posterity,  is  a  pertinent  ques- 
tion ;  and  one  may  also  ask,  why  was  it  worth 
while  to  bring  a  Piazzi  Smyth  into  the  world  to 
reveal  it,  since  plodding  human  reason  had  after 
all  by  slow  degrees  discovered  every  bit  of  it,  except 
the  date  of  the  millennium  ?  Why,  moreover,  did 
the  revelation  thus  elaborately  buried  in  or  about 
B.  c.  4000  come  just  abreast  of  the  scientific  know- 
ledge of  A.  D.  1864,  and  there  stop  short?  Is  it 
credible  that  old  Melchizedek  knew  nothing  about 
the  telephone,  or  the  Roentgen  ray,  or  the  cholera 
bacillus  ?  Our  pyramidalists  should  be  more  enter- 
prising, and  elicit  from  their  venerable  fetish  some 
useful  hints  as  to  wireless  telegraphy,  or  the  ven- 
tilation of  Pullman  cars,  or  the  purification  of 
Pennsylvania  politics.  Perhaps  the  last-named 
problem  might  vie  in  difficulty  with  squaring  the 
circle  ! 


430  A  Century  of  Science 

The  lucubrations  of  Piazzi  Smyth,  like  those 
of  Miss  Delia  Bacon,  called  into  existence  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  eccentric  literature.  For 
example,  there  is  Skinner's  "  Key  to  the  Hebrew- 
Egyptian  Mystery  in  the  Source  of  Measures  ori- 
ginating the  British  Inch  and  the  Ancient  Cubit," 
published  in  Cincinnati  in  1875,  a  tail  octavo  of 
324  pages,  bristling  with  diagrams  and  decimals, 
Hebrew  words  and  logarithms.  The  book  begins 
by  getting  the  circle  neatly  squared,  and  then  goes 
on  to  aver  that  sundry  crosses,  including  the  Chris- 
tian cross,  are  an  emblematic  display  of  the  origin 
of  measures.  The  "  mound-builders  "  come  in  for 
a  share  of  the  author's  attention ;  for  the  mounds 
are  "  alike  Ty phonic  emblems  with  the  pyramid  of 
Egypt  and  with  Hebrew  symbols."  A  Typhonic 
emblem  relates  to  Typhon,  the  "  lord  of  sepulture," 
whose  Egyptian  representative  was  the  crocodile, 
as  his  Hebrew  representative  was  the  hog ;  "  exem- 
plified in  the  Christian  books  by  the  devil  leaving 
the  man  and  passing  into  the  herd  of  swine,  which 
thereupon  rushed  into  the  sea,  another  emblem  of 
Typhon."  Yet  another  such  emblem  is  a  mound  in 
Ohio  which  simulates  the  contour  of  an  alligator. 
A  certain  Aztec  pyramid,  described  by  Humboldt, 
has  318  niches,  apparently  in  allusion  to  the  days 
of  the  old  Mexican  civil  calendar.     Mr.  Skinner 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        431 

sees  in  this  numeral  the  value  of  Pi,  and  further- 
more informs  us  that  318  is  the  Gnostic  symbol  for 
Christ,  as  well  as  the  number  of  Abraham's  trained 
servants.  Frequent  use  of  it  is  made  in  the  Great 
Pyramid ;  for  example,  multiplied  by  six  it  gives 
the  height  of  the  king's  chamber,  and  multiplied 
by  two  it  gives  half  the  base  side  of  that  apart- 
ment. Our  author  then  puts  the  pyramid  into  a 
sphere,  and  after  this  feat  it  is  an  easy  transition 
to  Noah's  flood,  i:he  zodiac,  and  modern  ritualism. 
Of  similar  purport,  though  more  concise  than  this 
octavo,  is  Dr.  Watson  Quinby's  "  Solomon's  Seal, 
a  Key  to  the  Pyramid,"  published  at  Wilmington, 
Delaware,  in  1880.  From  this  little  book  we  learn 
that  "  in  the  early  days  of  the  world  some  one  mea- 
sured the  earth,  and  found  its  diameter,  in  round 
numbers,  to  be  41,569,000  feet,  or  498,828,000 
inches;"  also  that  "Vishnu  means  Fish-Nuh, 
Noah-the-Fish,  in  allusion  to  his  sojourn  in  the 
ark."  Moreover,  the  Institutes  of  Manu  were 
written  by  Noah,  since  Maha/-Nuh  =  Great-Noah ! 
With  equal  felicity.  Rev.  Edward  Dingle  (in  his 
"  The  Balance  of  Physics,  the  Square  of  the  Cir- 
cle, and  the  Earth's  True  Solar  and  Lunar  Dis- 
tances," London,  1885,  pp.  246)  declares  that 
"  my  success,  let  it  be  held  what  it  may,  was 
secured  by  cleaving  to  the  Mosaic  initiation  of  the 


432  A  Century  of  Science 

Sabbatic  number  for  my  radius."  At  the  end  of 
his  book  Mr.  Dingle  exclaims  :  "To  the  Lor^  be 
all  thanksgiving,  who  has  kept  my  intellect  and 
the  directing  of  its  thoughts  sound,  while  seeking 
to  deliver  his  word  from  the  exulting  shouts  of  his 
enemies  and  the  seducers  of  mankind  !  " 

From  these  grotesque  rigmaroles  it  is  not  a  long 
step  to  the  lucubrations  of  the  writers  in  whose 
bonnets  the  bee  of  prophecy  has  buzzed  until  they 
have  come  to  fancy  themselves  skilled  interpreters. 
There  is  apt  to  be  the  same  droll  mixing  of  arith- 
metic with  history  that  we  find  among  the  pyramid 
cranks,  and  to  the  performance  of  such  antics  the 
book  of  Daniel  and  the  Apocalypse  present  irre- 
sistible temptations.  In  my  library  days,  I  never 
used  to  pick  up  a  commentary  on  either  of  those 
books  without  looking  for  some  of  the  stigmata 
or  witch-marks  of  crankery.  Many  a  feeble  intel- 
lect has  been  toppled  over  by  that  shining  image, 
with  head  of  gold  and  feet  of  iron  and  clay,  which 
Nebuchadnezzar  beheld  in  a  dream.  For  example, 
let  us  take  a  few  sentences  from  "  Emmanuel :  An 
Original  and  Exhaustive  Commentary  on  Creation 
and  Providence  Alike.  By  an  Octogenarian  Lay- 
man," London,  1883,  pp.  420 :  "  Upwards  of  thirty 
years  ago,  a  fancy  for  chronological  research,  fos- 
tered by  boundless  leisure  and  a  competent  facihty 


Some  CranJcs  and  their  Crotchets       433 

in  mental  calculation,  riveted  my  attention  on  the 
metallic  image,  in  the  vague  hope  of  symmetrizing 
the  four  sections  of  the  collective  emblem  with  the 
successive  dominations  of  the  individual  empires. 
Failing  in  so  shadowy  an  aspiration,  I  seemed  to 
be  more  than  compensated  by  detecting  an  identity 
of  duration,  equally  pregnant  and  positive,  between 
the  gold  and  the  silver  and  the  brass  and  the  iron 
taken  together  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  mountain 
that  was  to  crush  them  all  to  powder  on  the  other, 
—  the  former  aggregate  being  assiuned  to  stretch 
from  Nebuchadnezzar's  succession  in  606  B.  c.  to 
the  dethronement  of  Augustulus  in  476  A.  D.,  and 
the  latter  again  from  the  epoch  just  specified  to 
Elizabeth's  purgation  of  the  Sanctuary  in  1558." 
Having  thus  taken  two  equal  periods  of  1082 
years,  our  Octogenarian  proceeds  to  break  them  up 
(Heaven  knows  why !)  each  into  four  periods  of 
68,  204,  269,  and  541  years.  Then  we  are  treated 
to  the  following  equations  :  — 

68=2x34 
204=6x34 
269=5x34+3x33 
641=13x34+3x33 

Hence,  "with  such  a  fulcrum  as  the  Lamb  slain 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  such  a 
lever  as  the  span  of  the  Victim's  sublunary  humili- 


434  A  Century  of  Science 

ation,  was  I  too  rash  in  aiming  at  a  result  infinitely 
grander  than  Archimedes's  speculative  displacement 
of  the  earth?" 

That  eminent  mathematician,  Dr.  Nathaniel 
Bowditch,  used  to  say  that  sometimes,  when 
Laplace  passed  from  one  equation  to  the  next  with 
an  "  evidently,"  he  would  find  a  week's  study  neces- 
sary to  cross  the  abyss  which  the  transcendent 
mind  of  the  master  traversed  in  a  single  leap.  I 
fancy  that  more  than  a  week  would  be  needed  to 
fathom  the  Octogenarian's  "  hence,"  and  it  would 
by  no  means  be  worth  while  to  go  through  so 
much  and  get  so  little.  After  a  few  pages  of  the 
Octogenarian,  we  are  prepared  to  hear  that  in 
1750  one  Henry  SuUamar  squared  the  circle  by 
the  number  of  the  Beast  with  seven  heads  and 
ten  horns ;  and  that  in  1753  a  certain  French 
officer,  M.  de  Causans,  "  cut  a  circular  piece  of 
turf,  squared  it,  and  deduced  original  sin  and  the 
Trinity."  i 

The  reader  is  doubtless  by  this  time  weary  of  so 
much  tomfoolery ;  but  as  it  is  needful,  for  the  due 
comprehension  of  crankery  and  its  crotchets,  that 
he  should  by  and  by  have  still  more  of  it,  I  will 
give  him  a  moment's  relief  while  I  tell  of  a  little 
game  with  which  De  Morgan  and  Whewell  once 

1  De  Morgan,  p.  179. 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        435 

amused  themselves.  The  task  was  to  make  a  sen- 
tence which  should  contain  all  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet,  and  each  only  once.  "No  one,"  says  De 
Morgan,  "  has  done  it  with  v  and  j  treated  as  con- 
sonants ;  but  you  and  /  can  do  it "  (u  and  i  :  oh, 
monstrous  pun  !).  Dr.  Whewell  got  only  separate 
words,  and  failed  to  make  a  sentence :  phiz^  styx, 
wrong,  buck,  flame,  quid.  Very  pretty,  but  De 
Morgan  beat  him  out  of  sight  with  this  weird  senti- 
ment ;  /,  quartz  pyx,  who  fling  muck  beds  !  WeU, 
what  in  the  world  can  that  mean  ?  "I  long  thought 
that  no  human  being  could  say  it  under  any  cir- 
cumstances. At  last  I  happened  to  be  reading  a 
religious  writer  —  as  he  thought  himself  —  who 
threw  aspersions  on  his  opponents  thick  and  three- 
fold. Heyday!  came  into  my  head,  this  fellow 
flings  muck  beds  :  he  must  be  a  quartz  pyx.  And 
then  I  remembered  that  a  pyx  is  a  sacred  vessel, 
and  quartz  is  a  hard  stone,  as  hard  as  the  heart  of 
a  religious  foe-curser.  So  that  the  line  is  the  motto 
of  the  ferocious  sectarian,  who  turns  his  religious 
vessels  into  mud-holders  for  the  benefit  of  those 
who  will  not  see  what  he  sees."  ^ 

I  cite  this  drollery  to  show  the  world-wide  dif- 
ference between  the  playful  nonsense  of  the  wise 
man   and   the    strenuous   nonsense  of   the  mono- 

1  De  Morgan,  p.  163. 


436  A  Century  of  Science 

maniac ;  in  this  little  cahhala  alphabetical  more- 
over, a  great  deal  of  the  cabalistic  lore  which  cum- 
bers library  shelves  is  neatly  satirized. 

As  already  observed,  my  rule  was  never  to  put 
into  the  class  of  eccentric  literature  any  books  save 
such  as  seemed  to  have  emanated  from  diseased 
brains.  To  hold  an  absurd  belief,  to  write  in  its 
defense,  to  shape  one's  career  in  accordance  with 
it,  is  no  proof  of  an  unsound  mind.  Of  the  hun- 
dreds of  enthusiasts  who  spent  their  lives  in  quest 
of  the  philosopher's  stone,  many  were  doubtless 
cranks ;  but  many  were  able  thinkers  who  made 
the  best  use  they  could  of  the  scientific  resources 
of  their  time.  Wrong  ways  must  often  be  tried 
before  the  right  way  can  be  found.  Even  the  early 
circle-squarers  cannot  fairly  be  charged  with  crank- 
ery ;  they  sinned  against  no  light  that  was  acces- 
sible to  them.  But  anybody  who  to-day  should 
advertise  a  recipe  for  turning  base  metals  into 
gold  would  meet  with  a  chill  welcome  from  chem- 
ists. He  would  speedily  be  posted  as  a  quack, 
though  doubtless  many  weak  heads  would  be  turned 
by  him.  It  is  the  perverse  sinning  against  light 
that  is  one  of  the  most  abiding  features  of  crank- 
ery,  and  from  this  point  of  view  such  a  book  as 
"  Coin's  Financial  School "  has  many  claims  for 
admission  to  the  limbo  of  eccentric  literature. 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets       437 

About  seventy  years  ago,  one  John  Ranking 
published  in  London  a  volume  entitled  "  Histori- 
cal Researches  on  the  Conquest  of  Peru,  Mexico, 
Bogota,  Natchez,  and  Talomeco,^  in  the  Thirteenth 
Century,  by  the  Mongols,  accompanied  with  Ele- 
phants." It  is  well  known  that  in  1281  the  Mon- 
gols, after  conquering  pretty  much  everything  from 
the  Carpathian  Mountains  and  the  river  Euphra- 
tes to  the  Yellow  Sea,  invaded  Japan.  A  typhoon 
dispersed  their  fleet ;  and  their  army  of  more  than 
100,000  men,  cut  off  from  its  communications,  was 
completely  annihilated  by  the  Japanese.  But  Mr. 
Ranking  believed  that  this  wholesale  destruction 
was  a  fiction  of  the  chroniclers.  He  maintained 
that  most  of  the  army  escaped  in  a  new  fleet  and 
crossed  the  Pacific  Ocean,  taking  with  them  a  host 
of  elephants,  with  the  aid  of  which  they  made 
extensive  conquests  in  America  and  founded  king- 
doms in  Mexico  and  Peru.  The  widespread  fossil 
remains  of  the  American  mastodon  he  took  to  be 
the  bones  of  these  Mongolian  elephants.  Now, 
this  is  an  extremely  wild  theory,  unsound  and  un- 
tenable in  every  particular,  but  it  does  not  bring 
Mr.  Ranking' s  book  within  the  class  of  eccentric 
literature.  The  author  was  deficient  in  scholar- 
ship and  in  critical  judgment,  but  he  was  not  daft. 
^  A  site  not  far  from  that  of  Evansville,  Indiana. 


438  A  Century  of  Science 

A  very  different  verdict  must  be  rendered  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  Edwin  Johnson's  book,  called  "  The 
Rise  of  Christendom,"  published  in  London  in 
1890,  an  octavo  of  500  pages.  According  to  Mr. 
Jolmson,  the  rise  of  Christendom  began  in  the 
twelfth  century  of  our  era,  and  it  was  preceded  by 
two  centuries  of  Hebrew  religion,  which  started  in 
Moslem  Spain  !  First  came  Islam,  then  Judaism, 
then  Christianity.  The  genesis  of  both  the  latter 
was  connected  with  that  revolt  against  Islam  which 
we  call  the  Crusades.  What  we  suppose  to  be 
the  history  of  Israel,  as  well  as  that  of  the  first 
eleven  Christian  centuries,  is  a  gigantic  lie,  con- 
cocted in  the  thirteenth  century  by  the  monks  of 
St.  Basil  and  St.  Benedict.  The  Roman  emperors 
knew  nothing  of  Christianity,  and  the  multifarious 
allusions  to  it  in  ancient  writers  are  all  explained 
by  Mr.  Johnson  as  fraudulent  interpolations.  As 
for  the  Greek  and  Latin  fathers,  they  never  ex- 
isted. "  The  excellent  stylist,  who  writes  under 
the  name  of  Lactantius,  not  earlier  than  the  four- 
teenth century  ;  "  "  the  Augustinian  of  the  four- 
teenth or  fifteenth  century,  who  Avrites  the  roman- 
tic Confessions,"  —  such  is  the  airy  way  in  which 
the  matter  is  disposed  of.  As  for  the  New  Testar 
ment,  "  it  is  not  yet  clear  whether  the  book  was 
first  written  in  Latin  or  in  Greek."     This  reminds 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        439 

me  of  something  once  said  by  Rev.  Robert  Taylor, 
a  crazy  clergyman  who  in  1827  suffered  impris- 
onment for  blasphemy,  and  came  to  be  known  as 
the  Devil's  Chaplain.  Taylor  declared  that  for 
the  book  of  Revelation  there  was  no  Greek  origi- 
nal at  all,  but  Erasmus  wrote  it  in  Switzerland,  in 
the  year  1516.  The  audience,  or  part  of  it,  proba- 
bly took  Taylor's  word  as  sufficient ;  and  in  like 
manner  not  a  syllable  of  proof  is  alleged  for  Mr. 
Johnson's  prodigious  assertions.  From  cover  to 
cover,  there  is  no  trace  of  a  consciousness  that  proof 
is  needed ;  it  is  simply,  Thus  saith  Edwin  John- 
son. The  man  who  can  write  such  a  book  is  surely 
incapable  of  making  a  valid  will. 

Another  acute  phase  of  insanity  is  exemplified 
in  Nason's  "  History  of  the  Prehistoric  Ages,  writ- 
ten by  the  Ancient  Historic  Band  of  Spirits  "  (Chi- 
cago, 1880).  This  is  a  mediumistic  affair.  The 
ancient  band  consists  of  four-and-twenty  spirits, 
the  eldest  of  whom  occupied  a  material  body 
46,000  years  ago,  and  the  youngest  3000  years, 
ago.  They  dictated  to  Mr.  Nason  the  narrative, 
which  begins  with  the  origin  of  the  solar  system 
and  comes  down  to  Romulus  and  Remus,  betraying 
on  every  page  the  preternatural  didlness  and  igno- 
rance so  characteristic  of  all  the  spirits  with  whom 
mediums  have  dealings. 


440  A  Century  of  Science 

Concerning  the  Bacon  -  Shakespeare  lunacy  .  a 
word  must  suffice.  As  I  have  shown  in  a  previous 
essay,  the  doubt  concerning  the  authorship  of 
Shakespeare's  plays  was  in  part  a  reaction  against 
the  extravagances  of  doting  commentators  ;  but  in 
its  original  form  it  was  simply  an  insane  freak. 
The  unfortunate  lady  who  gave  it  currency  be- 
longed to  a  distinguished  Connecticut  family,  and 
the  story  of  her  malady  is  a  sad  one.  At  the  age 
of  eight-and-forty  she  died  in  the  asylum  at  Hart- 
ford, two  years  after  the  publication  of  her  book, 
"  The  Philosophy  of  Shakespeare's  Plays  Unfolded." 
The  suggestion  of  her  illustrious  namesake,  and 
perhaps  kinsman,  as  the  author  of  Shakespeare's 
works,  was  a  clear  instance  of  the  megalomania 
which  is  a  well-known  symptom  of  paranoia ;  and 
her  book  has  all  the  hazy  incoherence  that  is  so 
quickly  recognizable  in  the  writings  of  the  insane. 
A  friend  of  mine  once  asked  me  if  I  did  not  find 
it  hard  to  catch  her  meaning.  "  Meaning !  "  I  ex- 
\  claimed,  "  there 's  none  to  catch."  Among  the 
books  of  her  followers  are  all  degrees  of  eccen- 
tricity. That  of  Nathaniel  Holmes  stands  upon  the 
threshold  of  the  limbo ;  while  as  for  Ignatius  Don- 
nelly, all  his  works  belong  in  its  darkest  recesses. 

The  considerations  which  would  lead  one  to 
consign  a  book  to  that  limbo  are  often  complex. 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        441 

There  is  Miss  Marie  Brown's  book,  "  The  Icelandic 
Discoverers  of  America ;  or,  Honour  to  whom 
Honour  is  Due."  In  maintaining  that  Cokimbus 
knew  aU  about  the  voyages  of  the  Nortlimen  to 
Vinland,  and  was  helped  thereby  in  finding  his 
way  to  the  Bahamas,  there  is  nothing  necessarily 
eccentric.  Professor  Rasmus  Anderson  has  de- 
fended that  thesis  in  a  book  which  is  able  and 
scholarly,  a  book  which  every  reader  must  treat 
with  respect,  even  though  he  may  not  find  its 
arguments  convincing.  But  when  Miss  Brown 
declares  that  the  papacy  has  been  partner  in  a 
conspiracy  for  depriving  the  Scandinavians  of  the 
credit  due  them  as  discoverers  of  America,  and 
assures  us  that  this  is  a  matter  in  which  the  in- 
terests of  civil  and  religious  liberty  are  at  stake, 
one  begins  to  taste  the  queer  flavour  ;  and,  taking 
this  in  connection  with  the  atmosphere  of  rage  which 
pervades  the  book,  one  feels  inclined  to  place  it  in 
the  limbo.  For  example :  "  What  but  Catholic 
genius,  the  genius  for  deceit,  for  trickery,  for  se- 
crecy, for  wicked  and  diabolical  machinations,  could 
have  pursued  such  a  system  of  fraud  for  centuries 
as  the  one  now  being  exposed  !  What  but  Catho- 
lic genius,  a  prolific  genius  for  evil,  would  have  at- 
tempted to  rob  the  Norsemen  of  their  fame,  .  .  . 
and  to  foist  a  miserable  Italian  adventurer  and 


442  A  Century  of  Science 

upstart  upon  Americans  as  the  true  candidate  for 
these  posthumous  honours,  —  the  man  or  saint  to 
whom  they  are  to  do  homage,  and  through  this 
homage  allow  the  Church  of  Kome  to  slip  the  yoke 
of  spiritual  subjection  over  their  necks  !  " 

A  shrill  note  of  anger  is  sometimes  the  sure 
ear-mark  of  a  book  from  Queer  Street.  Anger  is, 
indeed,  a  kind  of  transient  mania,  and  eccentric 
literature  is  apt  to  be  written  in  high  dudgeon. 
When  you  take  up  a  pamphlet  by  "  Vindex,"  and 
read  the  title,  "  A  Box  on  Both  Ears  to  the  Powers 
that  ought  not  to  be  at  Washington,"  you  may  be 
prepared  to  find  incoherency.  I  once  catalogued 
an  edition  of  Plutarch's  little  essay  on  Superstition, 
and  was  about  to  let  it  go  on  its  way,  along  with 
ordinary  Greek  books,  when  my  eye  happened  to 
fall  upon  the  last  sentence  of  the  editor's  preface : 
"  I  terminate  this  my  Preface  by  consigning  all 
Greek  Scholars  to  the  special  care  of  Beelzebub." 
"  Oho  !  "  I  thought,  "  there  's  a  cloven  foot  here  ; 
perhaps,  if  we  explore  further,  we  may  get  a  whiff 
of  brimstone."     And  it  was  so. 

It  thus  appears  that  the  topics  treated  in  ec- 
centric literature  are  numerous  and  manifold. 
Not  only,  moreover,  has  this  department  its  vigor- 
ous prose-writers  ;  it  has  also  its  inspired  poets. 
Witness  the  following  lines  from  the  volume  en- 
titled »  Eucleia  "  (Salem,  1861)  :  — 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        443 

"  Hark,  hear  that  distant  boo-oo-oo, 
As,  walking  by  moonlight, 
He  whistles,  instructing  Carlo 
To  be  still,  and  not  bite." 

But  even  this  lofty  flight  of  inspiration  is  out- 
flown  by  Mr.  John  Landis,  who  was  limner  and 
draughtsman  as  well  as  poet.  In  his  "  Treatise  on 
Magnifying  God"  (New  York,  1843)  he  gives 
us  an  engraved  portrait  of  himself  surrounded  by 
ministering  angels,  and  accompanies  it  by  an  ode 
to  himseK,  one  verse  of  which  will  suflice  :  — 

"  With  Messrs.  Milton,  Watts,  and  Wesley, 
Familiar  thy  Name  will  e'er  be. 
Of  America's  Poets  thou 
Stand'st  on  the  foremost  list  now ; 
On  the  pinions  of  fame  does  shine, 
Landis  !  brightened  by  ev'ry  line, 
From  thy  poetic  pen  in  rhyme, 
Thy  name  descends  to  the  end  of  time." 

Immortality  of  fame  is  something  desired  by 
many,  but  attained  by  few.  Physical  immortality 
is  something  which  has  hitherto  been  supposed  to 
be  inexorably  denied  to  human  beings.  The  phrase 
"  AU  men  are  mortal "  figures  in  text-books  of 
logic  as  the  truest  of  truisms.  But  we  have  lately 
been  assured  that  this  is  a  mistake.  It  is  only  an 
induction  based  upon  simple  enumeration,  and  the 
first  man  who  escapes  death  will  disprove  it.  So, 
at  least,  I  was  told  by  a  very  downright  person 


444  A  Century  of  Science 

who  called  on  me  some  years  ago  with  a  huge  par- 
cel of  manuscript,  for  which  he  wanted  me  to  find 
him  a  publisher.  He  had  been  cruelly  snubbed 
and  ill-used,  but  truth  would  surely  prevail  over 
bigotry,  as  in  Galileo's  case.  I  took  his  address 
and  let  him  leave  his  manuscript.  Its  recipe  for 
physical  immortality,  diluted  through  600  foolscap 
pages,  was  simply  to  learn  how  to  go  without  food ! 
Usually  such  a  regimen  will  kill  you  by  the  fifth 
day,  but  if,  at  that  critical  moment,  while  at  the 
point  of  death,  you  make  one  heroic  effort  and 
stay  alive,  why,  then  you  will  have  overcome  the 
King  of  Terrors  once  for  all.  I  returned  the 
gentleman's  manuscript  with  a  polite  note,  regret- 
ting that  his  line  of  research  was  so  remote  from 
those  to  which  I  was  accustomed  that  I  could  not 
give  him  intelligent  aid. 

On  one  of  the  beautiful  hills  of  Petersham,  near 
the  centre  of  Massachusetts,  there  dwelt  a  few 
years  since  a  small  religious  community  of  persons 
who  believed  that  they  were  destined  to  escape 
death.  Not  science,  but  faith,  had  won  for  them 
this  boon.  They  believed  that  the  third  person 
of  the  Trinity  was  incarnated  in  their  leader  or 
high  priest.  Father  Howland.  This  community,  I 
believe,  came  from  Rhode  Island  about  forty  years 
ago,  and  at  the  height  of  its  prosperity  may  have 


Some  Cranhs  and  their  Crotchets        445 

numbered  twenty-five  or  thirty  men  and  women. 
Their  establishment  consisted  of  one  large  man- 
sard-roofed house,  with  barns  and  sheds  and  a 
good-sized  farm.  Their  housekeeping  was  tidy, 
and  they  put  up  apple-sauce.  They  maintained 
that  the  eighteen  and  a  half  centuries  of  the  so- 
called  Christian  era  have  really  been  the  dispen- 
sation of  John  the  Baptist,  and  that  the  true 
Christian  era  was  ushered  in  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  the  person  of  Father  Howland,  through  believ- 
ing in  whom  Christians  might  attain  to  eternal  life 
on  this  planet.  They  had  their  Sabbath  on  Sat- 
urday, and  worked  in  the  fields  on  Sunday ;  and 
they  made  sundry  distinctions  between  clean  and 
unclean  foods,  based  upon  their  slender  under- 
standing of  the  Old  Testament. 

For  a  few  years  these  worthy  people  enjoyed 
the  simple  rural  life  on  their  pleasant  hillside  with- 
out having  their  dream  of  immortality  rudely 
tested.  When  one  member  fell  ill  and  died,  and 
was  presently  followed  by  another,  it  was  easy  to 
dispose  of  such  cases  by  asserting  that  the  de- 
ceased were  not  true  believers  ;  they  were  black 
sheep,  hypocrites,  pretenders,  whited  sepulchres, 
and  their  deaths  had  purified  the  flock.  But  the 
next  one  to  die  was  Father  Howland  himself.  On 
a  warm  summer  day  of  1874,  as  he  was  driving  in 


446  A  Century  of  Science 

his  buggy  over  a  steep  mountain  road,  the  horse 
shied  so  violently  as  to  throw  out  the  venerable 
sage  against  a  wood-pile,  whereupon  sundry  loose 
logs  feU  upon  his  head  and  shoulders,  inflicting 
fatal  wounds.  Then  a  note  of  consternation  min- 
gled with  the  genuine  mourning  of  the  little  com- 
munity. It  was  a  perplexing  providence.  About 
twelve  months  afterward  I  made  my  first  visit 
to  these  people,  in  company  with  my  friend  Dr. 
William  James  and  five  carriage-loads  of  city  folk 
who  were  spending  the  summer  at  Petersham.  It 
was  a  Saturday  morning,  and  aU  the  worshippers 
were  in  their  best  clothes.  They  received  us  with 
a  quiet  but  cordial  welcome,  and  showed  us  into 
a  spacious  parlour  that  was  simply  briUiant  with 
cheerfulness.  Its  west  windows  looked  down  upon 
a  vast  and  varied  landscape,  with  rich  pastures, 
smiling  cornfields,  and  long  stretches  of  pine  forest 
covering  range  upon  range  of  hills  moulded  in 
forms  of  exquisite  beauty.  Beyond  the  foreground 
of  delicate  yellow  and  soft  green  tints  the  eye  rested 
upon  the  sombre  green  of  the  woodland,  and  be- 
hind it  all  came  the  rich  purple  of  the  distant  hills, 
fitfully  checkered  with  shadows  from  the  golden 
clouds.  Here  and  there  gleamed  the  white  church 
spires  of  some  secluded  hamlet,  while  on  the  hori- 
zon, seventy  miles  distant,  arose  the  lofty  peak  of 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        447 

old  Greylock.  Thence  to  Mount  Grace,  in  one 
huge  sweep,  the  entire  breadth  of  Vermont  was 
displayed,  a  wilderness  of  pale-blue  summits  blend- 
ing with  the  sky ;  and  over  all,  and  part  of  it  all, 
was  the  radiant  glory  of  the  September  sunshine. 

"  Truly,"  said  I  to  one  of  the  brethren,  a  man 
of  saintly  face,  "  if  you  are  expecting  to  dwell  for- 
ever upon  the  earth,  you  could  not  have  chosen  a 
more  inspiring  and  delightful  spot."  "  Yes,  in- 
deed," he  replied,  "  it  seems  too  beautiful  to  leave." 
The  topic  which  agitated  the  little  community  was 
thus  brought  up  for  discussion,  and,  except  for  a 
brief  prayer,  the  ordinary  Sabbath  exercises  were 
set  aside  for  this  purpose.  All  these  people  seemed 
polite  and  gentle  in  manner ;  their  simple-minded- 
ness was  noticeable,  and  their  ignorance  was  abys- 
mal, though  I  believe  they  could  all  read  the 
Bible  and  do  a  little  writing  and  arithmetic.  In 
the  facial  expression  of  every  one  I  thought  I  could 
see  something  that  betrayed  more  or  less  of  a  lapse 
from  complete  sanity.  Only  one  of  the  whole 
number  showed  any  sense  of  humour,  a  keen-eyed 
old  woman,  yclept  Sister  Caroline,  who  could  argue 
neatly  and  make  quaint  retorts.  She  and  the 
man  of  saintly  face  were  the  only  interesting  per- 
sonalities ;  the  rest  were  but  soulless  clods. 

It  soon  appeared  that  the  belief  in  terrestrial 


448  A  Century  of  Science 

immortality  had  not  yet  been  seriously  shaken  by 
Father  Rowland's  demise.  There  were  some  curi- 
ous incipient  symptoms  of  a  resurrection  myth. 
Their  leader's  death  had  been  heralded  by  signs 
and  portents.  One  aged  brother,  while  taking  his 
afternoon  nap  in  a  rocking-chair,  fell  forward  upon 
the  floor,  bringing  down  the  chair  upon  his  back ; 
and  at  that  identical  moment  another  brother 
rushed  in  from  the  garden,  exclaiming,  "  I  have 
seen  with  these  eyes  the  glory  of  the  Lord  re- 
vealed !  "  Evidently,  the  fall  of  the  rocking-chair 
prefigured  the  fall  of  the  wood-pile,  and  the  mo- 
ment of  Rowland's  fatal  injury  was  the  moment 
of  his  glorification.  Then  it  was  remembered  by 
Sister  Caroline  and  others  that  he  had  lately  fore- 
told his  apparent  death,  and  declared  that  it  was 
to  be  only  an  appearance.  "  Though  I  shaU  seem 
to  be  dead,  it  will  only  be  for  a  little  while,  and 
then  I  shaU  return  to  you." 

The  morning's  conversation  made  it  clear  that 
these  simple  folk  were  unanimous  in  believing  that 
the  completion  of  Father  Rowland's  work  de- 
manded his  presence  for  a  short  time  in  the  other 
world,  and  that  he  would  within  a  few  more  weeks 
or  months  return  to  them.  It  seemed  to  Dr.  James 
and  myself  that  the  conditions  were  favourable  to 
the  sudden  growth  of  a  belief  in  his  resurrection, 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        449 

and  for  some  time  after  that  visit  we  haK  expected 
to  hear  that  one  or  more  of  the  household  had  seen 
him.  In  this,  however,  we  were  disappointed.  I 
suspect  that  its  mental  soil  may,  after  all,  have 
been  too  barren  for  such  a  growth. 

Seven  years  elapsed  before  my  second  and  last 
visit  to  these  worthy  people.  In  the  mean  time  a 
large  addition  had  been  made  to  the  principal 
house,  nearly  doubling  its  capacity ;  and  I  was  told 
that  the  community  had  been  legally  incorporated 
under  the  Hebrew  title  of  Adoni-shomo,  or  "  The 
Lord  is  there."  One  would  naturally  infer  that 
the  membership  had  increased,  but  the  true  expla- 
nation was  very  different.  On  a  Saturday  after- 
noon in  the  summer  of  1882,  in  company  with 
fifteen  friends,  I  visited  the  community.  Our  re- 
ception this  time  was  something  more  than  polite ; 
there  was  a  noticeable  warmth  of  welcome  about 
it.  We  were  ushered  into  one  of  the  newly  built 
rooms,  —  a  long  chapel,  with  seats  on  either  side 
and  a  reading-desk  at  one  end.  All  the  women, 
both  hosts  and  guests,  took  their  seats  on  one  side, 
all  the  men  on  the  other.  A  whisper  from  my 
neighbour  informed  me  that  the  community  was 
reduced  to  twelve  persons :  thus  the  guests  out- 
numbered the  hosts.  The  high  priest,  Father  Rich- 
ards, a  venerable  man  of  ruddy  hue,  with  enormous 


450  A  Century  of  Science 

beard  as  white  as  snow,  stood  by  the  reading-desk, 
and  in  broken  tones  gave  thanks  to  God,  while 
abundant  tears  coursed  down  his  cheeks.  Now,  he 
said,  at  last  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  fulfilled. 
Two  or  three  years  ago  the  word  had  come  that 
they  must  build  a  chapel  and  add  to  their  liv- 
ing-rooms, for  they  were  about  to  receive  a  large 
accession  of  new  converts.  So  —  just  think  of  it, 
gentle  reader,  in  the  last  quarter  of  this  skeptical 
century  —  there  was  faith  enough  on  that  rugged 
mountain-side  to  put  three  or  four  thousand  dol- 
lars, earned  with  pork  and  apple-sauce,  into  solid 
masonry  and  timber-work !  And  now  at  last,  said 
Father  Richards,  in  the  arrival  of  this  goodly 
company  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  fulfilled! 
It  seemed  cruel  to  disturb  such  jubilant  assurance, 
but  we  soon  found  that  we  need  not  worry  our- 
selves on  that  score.  The  old  man's  faith  was 
a  rock  on  which  unwelcome  facts  were  quickly 
wrecked.  Though  we  took  pains  to  make  it  clear 
that  we  had  only  come  for  a  visit,  it  was  equally 
clear  to  him  that  we  were  to  be  converted  that  very 
afternoon,  and  would  soon  come  to  abide  with  the 
Adoni-shomo. 

Then  Sister  Caroline,  stepping  forward,  made  a 
long  metaphysical  harangue,  at  the  close  of  which 
she  walked  up  one  side  of  the  room  and  down  the 


Some  Cranhs  and  their  Crotchets        451 

other,  taking  each  person  by  the  hand  and  saying 
to  each  a  few  words.  When  she  came  to  me  she 
suddenly  broke  out  with  a  stream  of  gibberish,  and 
went  on  for  five  mortal  minutes,  pouring  it  forth 
as  glibly  as  if  it  had  been  her  mother  tongue. 
After  the  meeting  had  broken  up,  I  was  informed 
that  this  "  speaking  with  tongues  "  was  not  uncom- 
mon with  the  Adoni-shomo.  A  wicked  wag  in  our 
party  then  asked  Sister  Caroline  if  she  knew  what 
language  it  was  in  which  she  had  addressed  me. 
"  No,  sir,"  she  replied,  "  nor  do  I  know  the  mean- 
ing of  what  I  said  :  I  only  uttered  what  the  Lord 
put  into  my  mouth."  "  Well,"  said  this  graceless 
scoffer,  with  face  as  sober  as  a  deacon's,  "  I  am 
thoroughly  familiar  with  Hebrew,  and  I  recognized 
at  once  the  very  dialect  of  Galilee  as  spoken  when 
our  Saviour  was  on  the  earth !  "  At  this,  I  need 
hardly  add.  Sister  Caroline  was  highly  pleased. 

By  this  time  there  had  been  so  many  deaths  that 
induction  by  simple  enumeration  was  getting  to  be 
too  much  for  the  Adoni-shomo.  They  were  begin- 
ning to  realize  the  old  Scotchman's  conception  of 
the  elect :  "  Eh,  Jamie !  hoo  mony  d'  ye  thank 
there  be  of  the  elact  noo  alive  on  earth  ?  "  "  Eh ! 
mabbee  a  doozen."  "  Hoot,  mon,  nae  sae  mony  as 
thot !  "  We  found  our  woi'thy  hosts  less  willing 
than  of  old  to  discuss  their  doctrine  of  terrestrial 


452  A  Century  of  Science 

immortality,  and  there  were  symptoms  of  a  tend- 
ency to  give  it  a  Pickwickian  construction.  Since 
that  day,  their  little  community  has  vanished,  and 
its  glorious  landscape  knows  it  no  more. 

It  is  a  pity  that  before  the  end  it  should  not 
have  had  a  visit  from  Mr.  Hyland  C.  Kirk,  whose 
book  on  "  The  PossibiHty  of  Not  Dying  "  was  pub- 
lished in  New  York  in  1883.  In  this  book  the 
philosophic  plausibleness  of  the  opinion  that  a  time 
will  come  when  we  shaU  no  longer  need  to  shuffle 
off  this  mortal  coil  is  argued  at  some  length,  but 
the  question  as  to  how  this  is  to  happen  is  ignored. 
Mr.  Isaac  Jennings,  in  his  "  Tree  of  Life  "  (1867), 
thinks  it  can  be  accomplished  by  total  abstinence 
from  "alcohol,  tobacco,  coffee,  tea,  animal  food, 
spices,  and  caraway."  This  is  sufficiently  specific  ; 
but  Mr.  Kirk's  treatment  of  the  question  is  so  hazy 
as  to  suggest  the  suspicion  that  he  has  nothing  to 
offer  us. 

I  once  knew  such  a  case  of  a  delusion  without 
any  theory,  or,  if  you  please,  the  grin  without  the 
Cheshire  cat.  In  the  course  of  a  lecturing  jour- 
ney, some  thirty  years  ago,  I  was  approached  by  a 
refined  and  cultivated  gentleman,  who  imparted  to 
me  in  strict  confidence  and  with  much  modesty  of 
manner  the  faet  that  he  had  arrived  at  a  complete 
refutation  of  the  undulatory  theory  of  light !     To 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        453 

ask  him  for  some  statement  of  his  own  theory  was 
but  ordinary  courtesy ;  but  whenever  we  arrived  at 
this  point  —  which  happened  perhaps  half  a  dozen 
times  —  he  would  put  on  a  smile  of  mystery  and 
decline  to  pursue  the  subject.  I  assured  him  that 
he  need  have  no  fear  of  my  stealing  his  thunder, 
for  I  had  not  the  requisite  knowledge ;  but  he 
grew  more  darkly  mysterious  than  ever,  and  said 
that  the  time  for  him  to  speak  had  not  yet  come. 

A  few  months  later,  this  gentleman,  whom  I 
will  designate  as  Mr.  Flighty,  appeared  in  Cam- 
bridge, and  came  to  my  desk  in  the  college  library. 
Distress  was  written  in  his  face.  He  had  called 
upon  Professor  Silliman  and  other  professors  in 
Eastern  colleges,  and  had  been  shabbily  treated. 
Nobody  had  shown  him  any  politeness  except  Pro- 
fessor Youmans,  in  whom  he  believed  he  had  found 
a  convert.  "  Ah !  "  I  exclaimed,  "  then  you  told 
him  your  theory ;  perhaps  the  time  has  come  when 
you  can  tell  it  to  me."  But  no ;  again  came  the 
subtle  smile,  and  he  began  to  descant  upon  the  per- 
secution of  Galileo,  a  favourite  topic  with  cranks 
of  all  sorts.  He  asked  me  for  some  of  the  best 
books  on  the  undulatory  theory,  and  I  gave  him 
Cauchy,  whereat  he  stood  aghast,  and  said  the 
book  was  full  of  mathematics  which  he  could  not 
read ;  but  he  would  like  to  see  Newton's  Opticks, 


454  A  Century  of  Science 

for  that  book  did  not  uphold  the  undulatory  the- 
ory. "  Oh  !  "  said  I,  "  then  are  you  falling  back 
on  the  corpuscular  theory  ?  "  "  No,  indeed  ;  mine 
is  neither  the  one  nor  the  other,"  and  again  came 
the  Sibylline  smile.  As  I  went  for  the  book,  I 
found  Professor  Lovering  in  the  alcove,  halfway 
up  a  tall  ladder.  "  Hallo !  "  said  I  sotto  voce. 
"  There  is  a  man  in  here  who  has  upset  the  undu- 
latory theory  of  light ;  do  you  want  to  see  him  ?  " 
"  Heavens,  no  !  Can't  you  inveigle  him  into  some 
dark  corner  while  I  run  away  ?  "  "  Don't  worry," 
I  replied,  —  "  make  yourself  comfortable  ;  I  '11 
keep  him  from  you."  So  I  lured  Mr.  Flighty  into 
a  discourse  on  the  bigotry  of  scientific  folk,  while 
Old  Joe,  whose  fears  were  not  so  easily  allayed, 
soon  stealthily  emerged  from  his  alcove  and  hur- 
ried from  the  haU. 

The  next  time  that  I  happened  to  be  in  New 
York,  chatting  with  Youmans  at  the  Century 
Club,  I  alluded  to  Mr.  Flighty,  who  believed  he 
had  made  a  convert  of  him. 

"  Ay,  ay,"  rejoined  Youmans,  "  and  he  said  the 
same  of  you." 

"  Indeed !  Well,  I  suspected  as  much.  Unless 
you  drive  a  crank  from  the  room  with  cuffs  and 
jeers,  he  is  sure  to  think  you  agree  with  him.  I 
do  not  yet  know  what  Mr.  Flighty's  theory  is." 


Some  Cranhs  and  their  Crotchets        455 

"  Nor  I,"  said  Youmans. 

"  Do  you  believe  he  has  any  theory  at  all  ?  " 

"Not  a  bit  of  it.  He  is  a  madman,  and  his 
belief  that  he  has  a  theory  is  simply  the  form 
which  his  delusion  takes." 

"  Exactly  so,"  I  said ;  and  so  it  proved.  Severe 
business  troubles  had  wrecked  Mr.  Flighty's  mind, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  we  heard  that  he  had 
killed  himself  in  a  fit  of  acute  mania. 

My  story  must  not  end  with  such  a  gruesome 
affair.  Out  of  the  many  queer  people  I  have 
known,  let  me  mention  one  who  is  associated  with 
pleasant  memories  of  childhood  and  youth.  This 
man  was  no  charlatan,  but  a  learned  naturalist,  of 
solid  and  genuine  scientific  attainments,  who  came 
to  be  a  little  daft  in  his  old  age.  Dr.  Joseph 
Barratt,  whose  life  extended  over  three  fourths  of 
the  present  century,  was  born  in  England.  He 
was  at  one  time  a  pupil  of  Cuvier,  and  cherished 
his  memory  with  the  idolatrous  affection  which  that 
wonderful  man  seems  always  to  have  inspired. 
Dr.  Barratt,  as  a  physician  practising  in  Middle- 
to^vn,  Connecticut,  is  one  of  the  earliest  figures  in 
my  memory,  —  a  quaint  and  lovable  figure.  His 
attainments  in  botany  and  comparative  anatomy 
were  extensive ;  he  was  more  or  less  of  a  geologist, 
and  well  read  withal  in  history  and  general  litera- 


456  A  Century  of  Science 

ture,  besides  being  a  fair  linguist.  Though  emi- 
nently susceptible  of  the  tender  passion,  he  never 
married ;  he  was  neither  a  householder  nor  an 
autocrat  of  the  breakfast  table,  but  dwelt  hermit- 
like in  a  queer  snuggery  over  somebody's  shop. 
His  working-room  was  a  rare  sight ;  so  much  con- 
fusion has  not  been  seen  since  this  fair  world 
weltered  in  its  primeval  chaos.  With  its  cases 
of  mineral  and  botanical  specimens,  stuffed  birds 
and  skeletons  galore ;  with  its  beetles  and  spiders 
mounted  on  pins,  its  brains  of  divers  creatures  in 
jars  of  alcohol,  its  weird  retorts  and  crucibles,  its 
microscopes  and  surgeon's  tools,  its  shelves  of  mys- 
terious liquids  in  vials,  its  slabs  of  Portland  sand- 
stone bearing  footprints  of  Triassic  dinosaurs,  and 
near  the  door  a  grim  pterodactyl  keeping  guard 
over  all,  it  might  have  been  the  necromancing 
den  of  a  Sidrophel.  Maps  and  crayon  sketches, 
mingled  with  femurs  and  vertebrae,  sprawled  over 
tables  and  sofas  and  cumbered  the  chairs,  till  there 
was  scarcely  a  place  to  sit  down,  while  every- 
where in  direst  helter-skelter  yawned  and  toppled 
the  books.  And  such  books !  There  I  first 
browsed  in  Geoffroy  St.  Hilaire  and  Lamarck  and 
Blainville,  and  passed  enchanted  hours  with  the 
"  Regne  Animal."  The  doctor  was  a  courtly  gen- 
tleman of  the  old  stripe,  and  never  did  he  clear  a 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets        457 

chair  for  me  without  an  apology,  saying  that  he 
only  awaited  a  leisure  day  to  put  all  things  in 
strictest  order.  Dear  soul !  that  day  never  came. 
Dr.  Barratt  was  of  course  intensely  interested 
in  the  Portland  quarries,  and  they  furnished  the 
theme  of  the  monomania  which  overtook  him  at 
about  his  sixtieth  year.  He  accepted  with  enthu- 
siasm the  geological  proofs  of  the  antiquity  of  man 
in  Europe,  and  presently  undertook  to  reinforce 
them  by  proofs  of  his  own  gathering  in  the  Con- 
necticut Valley.  An  initial  difficulty  confronted 
him.  The  red  freestone  of  that  region  belongs  to 
the  Triassic  period,  the  oldest  of  the  secondary 
series.  It  was  an  age  of  giant  reptiles,  contempo- 
rary with  the  earliest  specimens  of  mammalian  life, 
and  not  a  likely  place  in  which  to  look  for  relics 
of  the  highest  of  mammals.  But  Dr.  Barratt  in- 
sisted that  this  freestone  is  Eocene,  thus  bringing 
it  into  the  tertiary  series ;  and  while  geologists  in 
general  were  unwilling  to  admit  the  existence  of 
man  before  the  Pleistocene  period,  he  boldly  car- 
ried it  back  to  the  Eocene.  Thus,  by  adding  a 
few  million  years  to  the  antiquity  of  mankind  and 
subtracting  a  few  million  from  that  of  the  rocks, 
he  was  enabled  at  once  to  maintain  that  he  had 
discovered  in  the  Portland  freestone  the  indisputa- 
ble remains  of  an  ancient  human  being  with  only 


458  A  Century  of  Science 

three  fingers,  upon  whom  he  bestowed  the  name  of 
Homo  tridactylus.  For  companions  he  gave  this 
personage  four  species  of  kangaroo,  and  from  that 
time  forth  discoveries  multiplied. 

Such  claims,  when  presented  before  learned 
societies  with  the  doctor's  quaint  enthusiasm,  and 
illustrated  by  his  marvellous  crayon  sketches, 
were  greeted  with  shouts  of  laughter.  Among  the 
geologists  who  chiefly  provoked  his  wrath  was  the 
celebrated  student  of  fossil  footprints,  Dr.  Edward 
Hitchcock.  "  Why,  sir,"  he  would  exclaim,  "  Dr. 
Hitchcock  is  a  perfect  fool,  sir !  I  can  teach  ten 
of  him,  sir !  "  In  spite  of  all  scoffs  and  rebuffs, 
the  old  gentleman  moved  on  to  the  end  serene  in 
his  unshakable  convictions.  A  courteous  listener 
was,  of  course,  a  rare  boon  to  him ;  and  so,  in  that 
little  town,  it  became  his  habit  to  confide  his  new 
discoveries  to  me.  When  I  was  out  walking,  if 
chary  of  my  half  hours  (as  sometimes  happened), 
a  long  detour  would  be  necessary,  to  avoid  his 
accustomed  haunts ;  and  once,  on  my  return  from 
a  journey,  I  had  hardly  rung  the  doorbell  when  he 
appeared  on  the  veranda  with  an  essay  entitled 
"  An  Eocene  Picnic,"  which  he  hoped  to  publish 
in  "  The  Atlantic  Monthly,"  and  which  he  insisted 
upon  reading  to  me  then  and  there.  At  one  time 
a  very  large  bone  was  found  in  one  of  the  quarries, 


Some  Cranks  and  their  Crotchets       459 

which  was  pronounced  by  Dr.  Hitchcock  to  have 
belonged  to  an  extinct  batrachian  ;  but  Dr.  Barratt 
saw  in  it  the  bone  of  a  pachyderm.  "  Why,  sir," 
said  he,  "  it  was  their  principal  beast  of  burden,  — 
as  big  as  a  rhinoceros  and  as  gentle  as  a  lamb. 
The  children  of  Homo  tridactylus  used  to  play 
about  his  feet,  sir,  in  perfect  safety.  I  call  him 
Mega-ergaton  docile^  '  the  teachable  great-worker.' 
Liddell  and  Scott  give  only  the  masculine,  ergates, 
but  for  a  beast  of  burden,  sir,  I  prefer  the  neuter 
form.  A  gigantic  pachyderm,  sir ;  and  Dr.  Hitch- 
cock, sir,  perfect  fool,  sir,  says  it  was  a  bullfrog !  " 
The  mortal  remains  of  this  gentle  palaeontologist 
rest  in  the  beautiful  Indian  Hill  Cemetery  at  Mid- 
dle town,  and  his  gravestone,  designed  and  placed 
there  by  my  dear  friend,  the  late  Charles  Brown- 
ing, is  appropriate  and  noble.  For  the  doctor  was 
after  all  a  sterling  man,  whose  unobtrusive  merits 
were  great,  while  his  foibles  were  not  important. 
The  stone  is  a  piece  of  fossil  tree-trunk,  brought 
over  from  Portland,  imbedded  in  an  amorphous 
block  untouched  by  chisel,  save  where,  on  a  bit 
of  polished  surface,  one  reads  the  name  and  dates, 
with  the  simple  legend,  "  The  Testimony  of  the 
Rocks." 
November,  189& 


NOTE 

AN    ACCOUNT    OF  THE    ADONI-SHOMO    COMMUNITY 

From  the  Springfield  Bepublican.  (1876.) 
As  queer  a  people  as  are  often  met,  and  apparently  as 
upright  and  religious,  withal,  are  the  Community  sit- 
uated on  the  stage-road  between  Athol  and  Petersham, 
and  commonly  known  thereabouts  as  "  Howlandites  " 
or  "  Fullerites."  According  to  their  account,  nearly 
twenty-one  years  ago,  two  Worcester  women,  Mrs.  Sa- 
rah J.  Hervey  and  her  sister,  Caroline  E.  Hawks,  had 
come  to  hope  for  a  divine  revelation  to  them,  and  in  ex- 
pectation of  it  had  gone  to  a  camp-meeting  at  Groton. 
Entering  the  meeting  they  heard  a  stranger  "  talking 
in  tongues,"  who  proved  to  be  the  man  to  meet  their 
wants,  in  the  person  of  Frederick  T.  Rowland,  a  Qua- 
ker, of  good  social  standing,  from  New  Bedford.  That 
day,  September  15, 1855,  was  the  origin  "  in  the  faith," 
though  not  in  temporal  association,  of  the  Community, 
these  three  being  the  "  pioneers,"  as  Sister  Hervey  takes 
pride  in  calling  herself  and  associates.  Mrs.  Hervey's 
husband  died  a  year  or  two  later,  though  not  in  the 
faith,  "  these  things,"  as  they  say,  "having  been  beyond 
him."  Soon  after,  the  new  belief  received  the  addi- 
tion of  eight  persons  from  Athol,  among  them  Leonard 
C.  Fuller,  the  present  Spiritual  head  of  the  Community, 


462  Note 

and  his  wife.  In  May,  1861,  having  been  "  moved  by 
the  Spirit "  to  form  an  association  for  living  together, 
they  settled  at  li'uller's,  at  the  south  end  of  Pleasant 
Street  in  Athol.  In  August,  1864,  they  removed  to 
their  present  farm  in  Petersham.  Brother  Rowland 
held  the  position  of  head  of  the  body  till  killed  by  a 
runaway  horse,  not  quite  two  years  ago.  His  people 
considered  him  a  prophet,  and  say  the  Lord  spoke  by 
him,  and  that  he  led  them  as  Moses  led  the  people  of 
Israel. 

Their  religious  belief  in  many  respects  resembles  that 
of  the  Adventists,  but  differs  in  the  vital  point,  that  the 
reign  of  Christ,  under  the  expected  new  dispensation,  is 
to  be  spiritual,  and  not  personal,  as  the  Adventists  hold. 
They  construe  the  saying  of  John  the  Revelator,  "I 
was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day,"  to  refer  to  a  pe- 
riod of  time  to  begin  with  the  7000th  year  of  the  world, 
which  is  near  at  hand.  The  judgment  day  they  believe 
has  already  begun,  and  in  a  short  time,  at  the  opening 
of  the  new  dispensation,  the  holy  dead  are  to  be  raised. 
When  a  man  who  has  only  received  "  common  "  salva- 
tion dies,  he  has  no  consciousness  till  the  resurrection  ; 
but  some,  who  are  "  specially "  saved,  will  not  die. 
Miracles  will  be  performed  commonly.  When  the  new 
dispensation  begins  they  are  to  be  of  the  144,000 
spoken  of  by  John,  and  are  to  judge  the  nations. 
They  do  not  believe  in  a  hypothetical  heaven  some- 
where in  space  ;  the  earth  is  not  to  be  destroyed  but 
changed;  and  finally  the  devil  is  to  be  bound  for  a 
thousand  years.     They  entirely  denounce  Spiritualism, 


Note  463 

saying  that  it  is  from  the  Devil,  or  Antichrist.  Brother 
Howland,  they  say,  lay  down  to  rise  with  the  prophets, 
and  they  have  written  out  what  they  claim  to  be  pro- 
phecies made  by  him  months  or  years  before  his  death 
as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  should  occur,  which,  judged 
by  the  event,  are  certainly  striking. 

The  Community  live  mostly  upon  farinaceous  food ; 
they  drink  principally  water,  sometimes  herb  tea.  No 
flesh  is  eaten,  because  there  is  to  be  a  restitution  of  the 
order  of  things  that  prevailed  in  the  garden  of  Eden, 
and  nothing  that  grows  in  the  ground,  because  the 
ground  is  cursed.  They  live  on  the  apostolic  plan  of 
having  all  property  in  common.  If  any  among  them 
wish  to  get  married,  they  have  to  leave  the  Community. 
Morning  and  evening  they  "  wait  before  the  Lord," 
standing,  repeat  the  Lord's  prayer,  and  read  and  ex- 
plain the  Bible,  "as  the  Spirit  gives  utterance."  Al- 
though the  district  public  school  is  only  a  stone's  throw 
away,  the  half-dozen  children  of  the  Community,  whom 
they  have  adopted,  "  as  the  Lord  sent  them,"  are  taught 
at  home  by  Sister  Hervey.  Sometimes,  the  neighbours' 
children  come  in,  also,  and  they  are  said  to  do  better 
there  than  at  the  public  school.  The  school  gives  an 
occasional  visit  before  the  family,  and  a  Christmas  tree 
is  provided.  No  jewelry  is  worn,  and  they  dress  very 
plainly ;  though  the  "  world's  people  "  claim  that  the 
Community  wear  as  expensive  "  fixin's  "  and  show  as 
much  pride  as  they  do.  The  Community  observe  a 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  extending  from  6  P.  M.,  Friday,  to 
the  same  hour,  Saturday.     The  exercises  begin  at  10 


464  NotQ 

o'clock,  Saturday,  and  continue  without  intermission  till 
3.  They  are  of  the  opinion  that  they  need  not  go  to 
a  synagogue  or  "  where  the  minister  has  to  go  'round 
and  wake  the  people  up,  as  he  did  down  to  the  Advent 
Church  in  Athol,  last  Sunday."  The  family  seat  them- 
selves in  the  parlour  on  three  sides  of  the  room,  with 
the  occasional  visitors  on  the  fourth  side  ;  and  the  exer- 
cises consist  of  exhortations  by  the  various  members,  ac- 
cording as  they  are  moved  by  the  Spirit,  with  abundant 
"  aniens  "  from  the  rest.  If  no  one  feels  called  upon  to 
speak,  they  study  the  Bible.  Often  they  break  out  into 
singing.  The  house  is  free  to  visitors  at  all  times.  Last 
year  from  June  to  October,  they  had  over  two  hundred 
visitors,  among  them  nineteen,  unexpectedly,  one  Sab- 
bath.i 

Their  number,  now  about  twenty,  varies  from  time  to 
time.  They  say  they  do  not  expect  additions,  though  re- 
cently they  have  received  two  or  three  which  they  count 
of  considerable  importance.  One  of  them  is  a  woman, 
formerly  a  member  of  the  Shaker  Community  at  Day- 
ton, O.,  where  she  was  not  satisfied,  who  walked  all  the 
way  from  Ohio  to  join  them ;  another  is  an  ex-Baptist 
minister  from  Athol.  They  say  they  have  suffered  con- 
siderable persecution  "  for  righteousness'  sake."  Mrs. 
Fuller  thinks  she  was  cheated  out  of  property  which 
her  mother  left  her,  and,  because  of  the  faith,  two  of 
their  number,  while  sick,  they  say,  were  turned  out  of 

1  This  was  my  first  visit,  with  Dr.  James  and  other  friends,  as 
above  described. 


Note  465 

a  house  on  School  Street  in  this  city.  They  add,  how- 
ever, that  those  forward  in  opposing  them  have  died 
sudden  or  violent  deaths.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are 
prospering;  they  own  a  farm  of  two  hundred  and 
ten  acres,  and  Brother  Asa  Richards,  their  Temporal 
head,  raises  stock,  grain,  fruits,  etc.,  nearly  sufl&cient  to 
support  them.  Brother  Fuller,  though  their  Spiritual 
head,  ^  does  the  marketing,  principally  in  Athol.  They 
have  decided  to  enlarge  the  house  and  build  a  chapel  in 
a  short  time,  "  if  the  Lord  permits."  Last  winter,  to 
protect  their  property,  they  went  to  the  secretary  of  the 
Commonwealth  and  were  organized  under  recent  state 
laws  as  a  corporation,  with  all  the  powers  of  a  chartered 
body,  under  the  name  of  "  Adoni-shomo,"  Hebrew  for 
"  the  Lord  is  there  ;  "  that  name  being  found  in  Eze- 
kiel  xlviii.  35.  All  their  property  will  now  remain  in 
the  Community  while  a  single  member  of  it  is  living. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  views  which  outsiders  hold 
of  their  Community  do  not  always  agree  with  their  own. 
A  "  brother  "  named  Mann  died,  last  fall,  and,  by  their 
own  confession,  they  had  some  difficulty  with  his  heirs, 
but  finally  settled  for  a  nominal  sum.  At  first  they  re- 
fused to  pay  over  anything,  but  the  heirs,  four  in  num- 
ber, threatening  law,  they  finally  concluded  that  the 
Lord  willed  them  to  give  up  S800.  The  common  belief 
is  that  Mann  was  worth  as  many  thousands ;  at  any 

1  Brother  Fuller  resigned  in  1877,  and  was  succeeded  by  Bro- 
^ther  Richards  as  Spiritual  head,  or  high  priest  of  the  Adoni- 
shomo. 


466  Note 

rate,  the  Petersham  property  was  deeded  to  him  in  con- 
nection with  Rowland.  Athol  people  scout  the  idea 
that  Rowland  had  prophetic  powers,  and  think  that  the 
Community  was  simply  the  result  of  a  shrewd  plan  of 
his  to  get  a  living  without  working  for  it. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abbot,  Ezba,  405. 

Adams,  John,  150. 

Adams,  Samuel,  155,  300. 

Adoni-shomo,  a  religious  community, 
449-452. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  77,  312. 

Agricultural  chemistry,  73. 

Alabama  Claims,  172,  176. 

Albigenses,  crusade  against  the,  132. 

Alger,  W.  R.,  93. 

Algol,  a  multiple  star,  7. 

Alphabet  puzzle,  435. 

Altruism,  113. 

America,  discovery  of,  123,  124;  ef- 
fects of  its  discovery  upon  political 
freedom,  127. 

American  history,  picturesqueness  of, 
197-193. 

Ames,  Fisher,  300. 

Anachronisms  in  Shakespeare's  plays, 
389. 

Anaxagoras,  117. 

Anglophobia  of  Scotchmen  in  former 
times,  181. 

Anthropocentric  thought,  111,  112. 

Appleton,  D.,  &  Co.,  89-91. 

Arbitration,  instances  of,  176,  177 ; 
among  the  ancient  Greeks,  182 ; 
among  the  Italian  republics,  183. 

Arbitration  Treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain,  165-193. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  on  translating  Ho- 
mer, 353. 

Arts,  beginning  of,  118-120. 

Aryan  languages,  31,  32. 

Asbjoernsen's  folk-tales  of  Norway, 
325. 

Astley,  Sir  Jacob,  160. 

Astronomy  at  the  Harvard  Observa- 
tory, 309. 

Athanasius,  53. 

Athenaeum  Press,  the,  309. 


Atomic  theory,  28. 

Augustine,  53. 

Avogadro's  law  of  gaseous  volumes,  28. 

Aztecs,  209. 

Bacon,  Delia,  a  paradoxer,  351,  356, 
385,  399,  402,  440. 

Bacon,  Francis,  356,  357,  367, 370,  374, 
375,  378,  379,  381,  383,  385-398,  403, 
404. 

Bacon-Shakespeare  folly,  350-404, 410. 

Baer,  K.  E.  von,   18,  19,  25,  41. 

Balance,  use  of,  2,  3. 

Baptists,  148. 

Barbarism,  types  of,  32-34. 

Barratt,  Joseph,  455-459. 

Bathybius,  313-345. 

Baxter,  Richard,  154. 

Beaumont,  Francis,  374. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  92. 

Bellerophon,  his  letter,  354. 

Bessel,  F.  W.,  6. 

Biblical  chronology  disturbed  by  geolo- 
gists, 9. 

Bichat,  X.,  his  study  of  tissues,  17. 

Big  Crow,  a  Sioux  chief,  240. 

B'.i?low,  Hosea,  on  the  right  to  be  a 
fool,  175;  on  the  Yankee  dialect, 
298;  on  citified  English,  371. 

Black,  Joseph,  his  discovery  of  latent 
heat,  10. 

Blackfriars  Theatre,  378. 

Blake,  Robert,  154. 

Blue  Anchor  Tavern,  297. 

Boccaccio,  G. ,  359. 

Bond,  G.  P.,  309. 

Bond,  W.  C,  309. 

Bopp,  Franz,  30. 

Boughton,  Sir  T.,  382. 

Bouquet,  Henry,  207. 

Bowditcb,  Nathaniel,  434. 

Br^beuf,  J.,  199. 


470 


Index 


Bridge,  John,  293. 

Bridges  of  Cambridge,  302. 

Bridgman,  Laura,  335. 

Brougham,  Lord,  412. 

Brown,  Marie,  a  paradoxer,  441. 

Browning,  Charles,  459. 

Biichner,  L.,  54. 

Buckle,  H.  T.,  218. 

BuUer,  Sir  Francis,  his  absurd  charge 

to  the  jury,  382. 
Bunker  Hill,  301. 
Bunyan,  John,  403. 
Burghley,  Lord,  364. 
Burke,  Edmund,  194. 
Burton,  Robert,  403. 

Cabanis,  Pierre,  55. 

Calvin,  J.,  130. 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  its  history,  286-318; 
originally  intended  to  be  capital  of 
Massachusetts,  290;  in  what  sense 
the  daughter  of  Cambridge,  Eng- 
land, 295;  complex  nature  of  its 
growth,  306;  its  extensive  manufac- 
tures, 307-309;  excellence  of  its 
municipal  government,  316,  317. 

Camden,  William,  374. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  218. 

Caroline,  Sister,  447,  450,  451. 

Carpenter,  W.,  a  paradoxer,  421. 

Catastrophes  in  geology,  21. 

Catholics,  disfranchised  in  Rhode  Is- 
land, 139. 

Causans,  M.  de,  a  circle-squarer,  434. 

Cavaliers  in  Virginia,  142. 

Cavendish,  Henry,  his  analysis  of 
water,  29. 

Champlain,  S.,  199,  203,  210. 

Chancery  phrases  seldom  found  in 
Shakespeare,  383. 

Chapman,  George,  357,  359,  373,  385. 

Charles  I.,  290. 

Charles  II.,  137,  165. 

Chemical  chart,  devised  by  E.  L.  You- 
mans,  79. 

Chemistry,  Toumans's  textbook  of,  80, 
81. 

Christ  Church  in  Cambridge,  298. 

Cieza  de  Leon,  202. 

Circle-squaring,  406-408,  411-417. 

Cities  in  Massachusetts,  305. 

Clan  ownership,  33. 


Clarendon,  Earl  of,  158. 
Clark,  J.  S.,93,  100. 
Class  Day  forty  years  ago,  311. 
Classification    of    organisms,    signifi- 
cance of,  14,  15. 
Cleveland,  Grover,  175;  his  Venezuela 

message,  179. 
"Coin's  Financial  School,"  436. 
Coke,  Edward,  374,  393. 
Columbus,  Christopher,  123. 
Commercial  spirit    and  ecclesiastical 

spirit,  antagonism  between,  134-136. 
Comparative  methoi,  30-35. 
Comte,    Auguste,   his   assertion  that 

a  stellar  astronomy  is  impossible, 

6;   failure  of  his  philosophy,  13,  14, 

88. 
Conan  Maol,  327. 

Congress  of  American  Colonies,  191. 
Congresses,  International,  188,  189. 
Connecticut,  founding  of,  145. 
Controverted   questions  between   the 

United  States  and  Great    Britain, 

171,  172. 
Cook,  Joseph,  333-349. 
Cooper,  James  Fenimore,  unreality  of 

his  Indians,  200. 
Copernicus,  N.,  102,  111,  125. 
Copyright,  international,  97. 
Correlation  of  forces,  27,  28,  55,  97. 
Cortes,  H.,  123. 
Cotton,  John,  139,  146,  225. 
Criminal  trials,  382. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  154-164. 
Culmer,  Frederick,  a  paradoxer,  425, 

426. 
Culture,  early  stages  of,  32-34. 
Cumulative  action,  11,  12,  77,  101. 
Curtin,  Jeremiah,  320-332. 
Curtis,  B.  R.,  300. 
Cuvier,  his  classification  of  animals  in 

space  and  time,  16,  17. 

Dalton's  law  of  proportions,  28. 
Darwin,  Charles,  21-24,  30,  40,  49,  77, 

103-105,  335,  3(i3,  380. 
Darwin,  George  Howard,  8. 
Defoe,  Daniel,  404. 
Delitzsch,  Franz,  341. 
De  Morgan,  Augustus,  411-419,  427, 

435. 
Derby,  Earl  of,  194. 


Index 


471 


Descartes,  Ren6,  125. 

Dickens,  Charles,  370. 

Diiferentiation,  44. 

Dingle,  Edward,  aparadoxer,  431. 

Diogenes,  on  the  possibility  of  mo- 
tion, Gl. 

Disarmament,  191-193. 

Disqualifications,  religious,  143. 

Dobbs,  a  caravan  doctor,  247. 

Dogberry,  395. 

Donellan,  John,  famous  case  of,  382. 

Donne,  John,  374. 

Donnelly,  Ignatius,  a  paradoxer,  398, 
403,  440. 

Doyle,  J.  A.,  155. 

Dudley,  Joseph,  146. 

Dummkopf,  Herr,  substituted  name 
for  a  paradoxer,  408,  409. 

Dunster,  Henry,  294. 

Dying,  how  to  avoid,  444-452. 

Dynamical  conception  of  the  world. 


East  Gate  of  Cambridge,  296. 
Eccentric  literature,  409-444. 
Ecclesiasticism    and    commercialism, 

antagonism  between,  134-136. 
Edward  I.,  130. 
Edward  III.,  130,  136. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  147,  148,  164. 
Electoral  Commission  of  1877,  173, 
Eliot,  George,  353,  354. 
Eliot,  John,  157. 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  131,  132. 
Elze,  K.,  372. 

Embryology,  its  lessons,  16. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  145,  150. 
Endicott,  John,  143,  144. 
Evolution,   35-38  ;  and  the   study  of 

history,  42,  65,  66. 

Facts  vs.  theories,  21. 

Fairfax,  Thomas,  157. 

Faraday,  M.,  his  discovery  of  mag- 
neto-electric induction,  27. 

Farmer  Weathersky,  329. 

Fenian  legends,  327. 

Fifth  Monarchists,  164. 

Fischer,  Kuno,  386. 

Fletcher,  John,  374,  395. 

Flighty,  Mr.,  substituted  name  for  a 
paradoxer,  452-455. 


Forman,  Captain,  a  paradoxer,  412, 
413. 

Forsyth,  W.,  194. 

Foster,  John,  155. 

Fox-hunting,  condemned  by  E.  A. 
Freeman,  283. 

France  and  England,  their  struggle 
for  North  America,  216. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  69,  145,  150. 

Freedom  of  thought,  unpopularity  of, 
128,  152. 

Freeman,  E.  A.,  30;  his  birth,  265; 
leading  events  of  his  life,  266 ;  his 
early  work  in  architecture,  267 ;  his 
breadth  of  view,  268 ;  his  historical 
essays,  269 ;  his  book  on  federal 
government,  269-272;  his  "Nor- 
man Conquest  "  and  "  William 
Rufus,"  272-274;  his  miscellaneous 
work,  especially  relating  to  eastern 
Europe,  275 ;  his  lectures  on  com- 
parative politics,  276  ;  his  work  on 
historical  geography,  277 ;  other 
work,  278,  279;  his  history  of 
Sicily,  279,  280;  his  premature 
death,  281  ;  hia  warfare  against 
fools  and  tyrants,  281,  282;  his 
wholesome  view  of  the  Eastern 
Question,  282 ;  his  condemnation  of 
fox-hunting,  283;  his  domestic 
habits,  283. 

French  heroism,  218. 

French  materialists  of  the  18th  cen- 
tury, 116,  117. 

French  war  of  1755-1763 ;  its  impor- 
tance not  generally  comprehended, 
251. 

Fresnel,  A.  J.,  27. 

Frontenac,  Count,  210. 

Frothingham,  Octavius  Brooks,  225, 
257,  260. 

Froude,  J.  C,  194. 

Fuller,  Thomas,  374. 

Gaelic   language,   its   pathetic   fate, 

320-323. 
Galapagos  Islands,  23. 
Galen,  400. 
Galileo,  444, 453. 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  202. 
Gardiner,  S.  R.,  156. 
Gerry,  Elbridge,  300. 


472 


Index 


Ood's  Acre  in  Cambridge,  296. 

Goethe,  Joliann  Wolfgang  von,  one 
of  the  first  among  evolutionists,  14, 
15 ;  41,  62. 

Gravitation,  theory  of,  called  athe- 
istic, 9 ;  forbidden  to  be  taught  in 
Spain,  126. 

Gray,  Asa,  30,  312,  349. 

Gray,  Thomas,  157. 

Great  Awakening,  the,  147,  148. 

Great  Design,  the,  of  Henry  IV.,  190. 

Greece  in  primitive  times,  211,  212. 

Greene,  Robert,  373,  384. 

Grove,  Sir  W.,  27. 

Gruagach  of  Tricks,  the,  329-331. 

Gumpach,  Johannes,  a  paradoxer,  418. 

Gurney,  E.  W.,  93. 

Haddon  Hall,  123. 

Haeckel,  Ernst,  his  materialism  re- 
futed, 51-62 ;  115,  116. 

Hail-Storm,  a  young  warrior,  243-245. 

Hales,  Sir  James,  case  of,  379,  380. 

Half-way  Covenant,  146-148. 

Hall,  Caroline,  225. 

Hall,  Nathaniel,  225. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  157,  180. 

Hampden,  John,  157. 

Hampden,  John,  a  paradoxer,  419. 

Harvard  College,  foimding  of,  161, 
294. 

Harvey,  William,  on  the  advance 
from  simplicity  to  complexity,  41 ; 
his  remark  about  Bacon,  388 ;  his 
discovery  of  the  circulation  of  blood, 
400,  401. 

Hathaway,  Anne,  her  cottage  at  Shot- 
tery,  365. 

Helium,  7. 

Helmholtz,  Hermann  Ludwig  Ferdi- 
nand von,  27. 

Helps,  Sir  Arthur,  64, 

Henry  V.  of  England,  125. 

Henry  VIII.  of  England,  129,  134. 

Henry  the  Navigator,  Prince,  123. 

Herbert,  Edward,  374. 

Herschel,  Sir  John,  412. 

Heterogeneity,  44. 

Higginson,  T.  W.,  194. 

Hippocrates,  400. 

Historian,  requirements  for  making 
an,  208. 


Hitchcock,  Edward,  458,  459. 
Hodge,  a  circle-squarer,  413-416. 
Holinshed,  Raphael,  358. 
Holmes,  Nathaniel,  a  paradoxer,  379- 

381,  440. 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  his  birthplace,  301. 
Homo  tridactylus,  458. 
Homogeneity,  44. 
Hook,  Theodore,  350. 
Hooker,  Sir  J.,  20. 
Hooker,  Richard,  53,  373. 
Hooker,  Thomas,  292. 
Hosmer,  J.  K.,  156-165. 
Household  science,  97. 
Howland,  Father,  444,  445,  448. 
Human  sacrifices,  34. 
Human    soul,  centre   of   Spencerian 

world,  48. 
Humboldt,  Alexander  von,  422. 
Humour,  Bacon's  deficiency  in,  490 ; 

seldom  found  in  cranks,  410. 
Hunter,  Sir  John,  382. 
Hutchinson,  Anne,  161,  292. 
Hutchinson,  Thomas,  291,  300. 
Hutton,    James,    his  theory  of    the 

earth,  10. 
Huxley,  T.  H.,  17,  30, 91,  95,  337,  343- 

348,  361,  363. 
Huyghens,  Christian,  26,  27. 

Immortality  of  the  soul,  61,  114. 

Independency, 131-134. 

Indestructibility  of  matter,  28. 

Infancy,  chief  causes  of  the  prolonga- 
tion of  human,  106-109 ;  effect  of 
the  prolongation  of  human,  109 ;  of 
the  orang-outang,  105. 

Inquisition  in  Spain,  effects  of,  126. 

Insane  literature,  407-409. 

Integration,  44. 

International  Scientific  Series,  96, 97. 

Ireton,  Henry,  157. 

Irish  folk-lore,  319-332. 

Iroquois  farmers  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  209. 

Isolation  of  the  United  States,  impos 
sibility  of  maintaining,  193. 

Jackson,  Hughlings,  361,  362. 

James  I.,  131. 

James  II.,  137. 

James,  William,  446,  448. 


Index 


473 


Jamestown,  founding  of,  190. 

Japan,  Mongolian  invasion  of,  437. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  141,  142,  150,  305. 

Jennings,  Isaac,  a  paradoxer,  452. 

Jesuits  in  New  France,  127. 

Jevons,  Stanley,  388. 

Johnson,  Edwin,  a  paradoxer,  438, 
439. 

Johnson,  Rev.  Samuel,  88. 

Jones,  Inigo,  374. 

Jonson,  Ben,  357,  366-370,  374,  378, 
385. 

Joule,  J.  P.,  27. 

Jupiter,  the  planet,  still  feebly  self- 
luminous,  8. 

Kabaosa,  200. 

Kant,  Immanuel,  26,  150. 

Keats,  John,  359,  374. 

Keely  motor,  417. 

Kelvin,  Lord,  on  the  size  of  atoms, 
29. 

Kepler,  Johannes,  8. 

King,  Rufus,  300. 

King  of  Sweden,  as  an  umpire,  167. 

Kinship,  reckoned  through  the  mo- 
ther, 33. 

Kirk,  H.  C,  a  paradoxer,  452. 

Koch,  Robert,  29. 

Kuhn,  Adolph,  30. 

Lalemant,  J.,  199. 

Lamb,  Charles,  350. 

Lander,  William,  a  paradoxer,  419. 

Landis,  John,  eccentric  poet,  443. 

Lang,  Andrew,  on  the  Homeric 
poems,  355. 

Langdon,  Samuel,  301. 

Laplace,  Marquis  Pierre  Simon  de, 
434. 

La  Salle,  Robert,  199. 

Lavoisier,  A.  L.,  his  theory  of  com- 
bustion, 3 ;  37. 

Lecturer,  hardships  of  a,  84. 

Lectures  on  science  by  E.  L.  Youmans, 
82-87. 

Leibnitz,  G.  W.,  389. 

Leslie,  Alexander,  158. 

Levie  en  masse,  system  of,  185,  186. 

Lewes,  G.  H.,  361-333. 

Lewis  and  Clark,  203. 

Light,  uudulatory  theory  of,  27. 


Lindemann's  researches  on  Pi,  407. 
Linguistic  Society  of  Paris,  21. 
Linnaeus,  his  system  of  classification, 

16  ;  his  relation  to  evolution,  41. 
Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  194,  205. 
Locke,  John,  125,  134. 
Lollardism,  130. 
London,    size   of,  in    Shakespeare's 

time,  375. 
Longfellow,  H.  W.,  312. 
Lotze,  H.  R.,  341. 
Louis  XIV.,  216. 
Lovering,  Joseph,  454. 
Lowell,  J.  R.,299,  312,  399. 
Lubbock,  Sir  J.,  95. 
Luther,  Martin,  125. 
Lutherans,  142. 
Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  greatness  of  his 

work,  10-13 ;  77. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  156,  387. 

Madison,  James,  141-143,  157. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  21,  30. 

Malpighi,  M.,  401. 

Manipulation,  its  importance  in  the 
evolution  of  man,  117,  118. 

Manuscripts  used  by  Parkman,  204. 

Marie  de  I'Incamation,  199. 

Marlowe,  Christopher,  373,  385. 

Maryland,  136. 

Massachusetts,  growth  of  liberal 
thought  in,  144-149. 

Masson,  David,  156. 

Mastodon,  437. 

Materialism,  attacked  by  Hert>ert 
Spencer,  50. 

Mather,  Cotton,  294. 

Maurer,  K.,  30. 

Maurice,  F.  D..  341. 

Mayer,  J.  R.,  27. 

Maypoles,  375. 

Mega-ergaton  docile,  459. 

Megalomania  of  cranks,  410. 

Memorial  Hall  at  Cambridge,  Mass., 
313. 

"  Merchant  of  Venice,"  its  crazy  law, 
386. 

Meres,  Francis,  his  praise  of  Shake- 
speare, 376,  377. 

Mermaid  Tavern,  374. 

Metamorphosis  of  motions,  55-57. 

Methodism,  148. 


474 


Index 


Mexico,  conquest  of,  201,  202. 
Middle  Ages,  accumulated  misery  in, 

183,  184. 
Middlesex  Fells,  227. 
"  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  A,"  375. 
Mill,  J.  S.,  94,  335. 
Milton,    John,     125,     134,    139;     his 

"Lycidas,"    358;     his    verses    on 

Shakespeare,  368,  369. 
Mintum,  R.  B. ,  95. 
Mommsen,  T.,  30. 
Montaigne,  M.  de,  390,  403. 
Montcalm,  201. 
Montezuma,  203. 
Morality,  beginnings  of,  110. 
Morell,  J.  D.,  87. 
Morgan,  Appleton,  371. 
Morse,  Royal,  310. 
Morphology,  15. 

Nash,  Thomas,  384. 

Nasou,  a  paradoxer,  439. 

Natural  selection,  24. 

Nebular  theory,  26,  45,  46,  77. 

Neptune,  the  planet,  discovery  of,  5. 

Netherlands,  toleration  in,  135,  136. 

New  Haven  Colony,  suppressed  by 
Charles  II.,  146. 

New  Netherlands,  136. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  2,  5,  6,  9,  27,  37, 
66,  125,  126,  388,  418,  419. 

Noble  Savage,  200. 

Nordenskjold,  Baron,  Swedish  ex- 
plorer, 424,  425. 

Norton,  John,  146. 

"Noverint,  trade  of,"  a  slang  expres- 
sion, 384. 

Octogenarian  layman,  an,  432-434. 

Odyssey,  the,  210. 

Oersted,  H.  C,  27. 

Ogillalah  Indians,  240. 

Old  South  Church,  founding  of,  146, 

299. 
Olney,  Richard,  166,  175. 
Ophelia,     her     right     to      Christian 

burial,  380. 
Orang-outang,  an  infant,  brought  up 

by  A.  R.  Wallace,  105,  106. 
•'  Oregon    Trail,    The,"    by   Francis 

Parkman,  236-248. 
Orion,  nebula  of,  7. 


Orthodoxies,  new  and  old,  129,  151. 
Ovum,  shows  the  process  of  develop- 
ment in  all  its  stages,  43,  44. 
Owen,  Orville,  a  paradoxer,  370,  403. 
Oxenstjern,  cynical  remark  of,  349. 

Paine,  Thomas,  149. 

Paley,  Frederick,  353. 

Paris,  massacres  of  prisoners  in,  287. 

Parker,  Theodore,  144,  151,  230. 

Parkman,  Ebenezer,  223. 

Parkman,  Francis,  as  an  historian, 
194-222;  his  birth,  223;  his  boy- 
hood, 226-230  ;  his  first  journey  to 
Europe,  233-235;  his  life  among 
Indians,  235-246;  his  ill-health, 
238,  239,  246-250,  254,  256,  261; 
how  he  composed  "  The  Conspiracy 
of  Pontiac,"  249-251  ;  his  marriage, 
253;  his  house  at  Jamaica  Plain, 
255,  256 ;  his  garden  and  green- 
house, 257,  258 ;  his  eminence  in 
horticulture,  258 ;  his  pamphlets, 
263 ;  his  death,  264 ;  greatness  of 
his  work,  264. 

Parkman,  Rev.  Francis,  224,  225. 

Parkman,  Samuel,  223. 

Parsons,  Theophilus,  300. 

Parthenogenesis,  345-348. 

Passionists,  a  monastic  order,  234. 

Pasteur,  Louis,  29. 

Pauncefote,  Sir  J.,  166. 

Peaceful  tendencies  of  commerce,  187, 
188. 

Peirce,  Benjamin,  313. 

Peloponnesian  War,  289. 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  367. 

Pendulum,  27. 

Penn,  William,  134,  138. 

Pennsylvania,  137. 

Perpetual  motion,  417. 

Perspective,  historic,  195,  196. 

Petersham,  Mass.,  a  religious  com- 
munity in,  444-452. 

Phlogiston,  doctrine  of,  2-4. 

Phokion,  his  estimate  of  popularity, 
334. 

Photography,  application  to  the  tele- 
scope, 8. 

Pi,  a  geometrical  symbol,  405-407, 
412. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  300. 


Index 


475 


PisistratuB,  352. 

Platte  River,  the.  203. 

Plowden's  Repoics,  381.' 

Plutarch,  358;  his  essay  on  supersti- 
tion, edited  by  a  paradoxer,  442. 

Poetry,  eccentric,  443. 

"Pontiac,  The  Conspiracy  of,"  195, 
249  251. 

Pope,  Alexander,  387. 

"  Popular  Science  Monthly,  The,"  98. 

Positivism,  weakness  of,  14. 

Pott,  Mrs.  H.,  a  paradoxer,  her  edition 
of  the  Promus  manuscript,  394,  395. 

Prcemunire  statutes,  130. 

Precision  of  detail  in  myths,  323-325. 

Presbyterianism,  131. 

Presbyterians,  142. 

Prescott,  WilUam,  201,  202. 

Pride's  Purge,  163. 

Priestley,  Joseph,  his  discovery  of 
oxygen,  1-4,  26,  37;  his  treatise  on 
electricity,  27 ;  burning  of  his  house, 
287. 

Proctor,  Richard,  421. 

Profanity,  silent,  339. 

Progressiveness  of  man,  explanation 
of  the,  108. 

*'  Promu3  of  Formularies  and  Elegan- 
cies," 394. 

Prophecy  lunatics,  432-434. 

Prospect  Union,  the,  315. 

Protection  run  mad,  219,  220. 

Prussia,  revelation  of  her  military 
strength,  186. 

Psychology,  Spencer's  masterly  treat- 
ment of,  48,  49. 

Puritan  theocracy,  145,  146. 

Puritanism,  origin  of,  130-132. 

Putnam,  Israel,  201. 

Pym,  John,  157. 

Pyramid  lunatics,  428-431. 

Pyramids  of  Egypt,  211. 

Quakerism,     wherein     distinguished 

from  Independency,  138. 
Quimby,  W.,  a  paradoxer,  431. 

Radcliffe  College,  314.      ' 

Radiata,  17. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  125,  364,  373,393. 

Ranking,  John,  437. 

Red  Water,  an  Indian  warrior,  241. 


Reed,  Edwin,  a  paradoxer,  366,  367. 

Reform  of  human  nature,  slowness  of, 
76. 

Registration  of  experiences,  107, 108. 

Religion,  reality  of,  114,  115. 

Renaissance,  124. 

Rhode  Island,  136 ;  Catholics  dis- 
franchised in,  139. 

Richards,  Father,  449,  450. 

Ripley,  George,  92. 

Riverside  Press,  the,  308. 

Roberts,  G.  L.,  93. 

Roblin,  Captain,  a  paradoxer,  418. 

Roe,  J.  E.,  a  paradoxer,  403. 

Romano,  Julio,  372,  373. 

"  Root  and  branch  "  men,  131. 

Rousseau,  J.  J.,  200. 

Rowbotham,  Samuel,  a  paradoxer, 
421. 

Rumford,  Count,  27. 

Running  for  office  in  Tir  na  n-Og,  329. 

Russell,  Lord  John,  412. 

Rutherford,  Samuel,  133. 

Saint-Hilaire,  fitienne  Geoffroy,  20. 

Saint-Hilaire,  Isidore  Geoffroy,  20. 

Saturn's  rings,  27. 

Savage  life,  delights  of,  207,  208. 

Savagery,  types  of,  32. 

Savages  and  barbarians,  211. 

Saxo  Grammaticus,  359. 

Scheele,  C.  W.,  his  relation  to  the 
discovery  of  oxygen,  3. 

Schelling,  F.  W.  J.,  41. 

Schlegel,  August  von,  402. 

Schleicher,  A.,  30. 

Schleiden,  M.  J.,  his  cell  doctrine,  18. 

School-teacher,  a  model,  71. 

Schwann's  cell  doctrine,  18. 

Science,  pure  and  applied,  29. 

Scofield,  Catherine,  68. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  199. 

Selden,  John,  374. 

Servetus,  Michael,  401. 

Shakespeare,  William,  125,  356-404. 

Shaw,  Quincy,  203,  236. 

Shenandoah  "Valley,  settlement  of, 
142. 

Shepard,  Thomas,  293. 

Shepard  Church  in  Cambridge,  found- 
ing of,  299. 

Shocks,  nervous  and  psychical,  60. 


476 


Index 


Silliman,  B.,453. 

Silsbee,  Edward,  88. 

Skinner,  a  paradoxer,  430. 

Small  wit,  Mr. ,  substituted  name  for  a 

paradoxer,  408,  409. 
Smith,  James,  a  circle-squarer,  411. 
SmitD,  Captain  John,  203. 
Smyth,  C.  Piazzi,  a  paradoxer,  426- 

429. 
Society  and   organism,  deepest  dis- 
tinction between,  47. 
Solar  system,  5. 

Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  158. 
Sophocles,  E.  A.,. 312. 
Southampton,  Earl  of,  370. 
Spain,  her  methods  in  America,  214, 

215. 
Spanish  literature  and  science,  126. 
Speaking  with  tongues,  451. 
Spectrum  analysis,  6,  7. 
Spedding,  James,  386. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  20,  25,    26,  39-51, 

55,  66,  67,  86-96,  339,  341,  361-363; 

some  ambiguities  of  expression,  58- 

61. 
Spencerians,  forty  years  ago,  93. 
Spenser,   Edmund,   374;   his  compli- 
ment to  Shakespeare,  376. 
Spinoza,  B.,  388. 
Spot  Pond,  227. 
Stahl,  G.  E.,  2-4,  37. 
Standard  of  degrees  of  organization, 

45. 
Stars,  multiple,  6,  7. 
Stone  Age,  men  of  the,  210,  240,  291. 
Story,  Joseph,  300. 
Strafford,  Earl  of,  154. 
Stratford,  its  dirty  streets,  365. 
Strong,  Caleb,  300. 
Stuyvesant,  Peter,  his  treatment  of 

Quakers,  137. 
Suffrage,  limited  to  church  members 

in  Massachusetts  and  New  Haven, 

145,  146. 
Sullamar,  Henry,  a  circle-squarer,  434. 
Sully,  Duke  of,  190. 
Swan  of  Avon,  366,  367. 
Swift,  Jonathan,  404. 
Symmes,  Americus,  a  paradoxer,  424, 

425. 
Symmes,  J.  C,  a  paradoxer,  421-423. 
Synods  and  congregations,  133. 


Taylor,  Robert,  imprisoned  for  blas- 
phemy, 439. 

Telescope-making  in  Cambridge,  309. 

Theocritus,  358. 

Thirst  for  knowledge,  70. 

Thomson,  Sir  William.  See  Kelvin, 
Lord. 

Thomson,  Sir  Wyville,  345. 

" Thou  "  and  "you "  in  Shakespeare's 
time,  392,  393. 

Thunder-fighters,  the,  242. 

Ticknor  &  Fields,  89. 

Tir  na  n-Og,  tlie  land  of  yonth,  328. 

"  Top-knot  come  down,"  348. 

Tory  party  in  New  England,  146. 

Tourneur,  Cyril,  373. 

Town  meetings,  305. 

Trade  between  Europe  and  Asia,  122, 
123. 

Trent,  afi.ar  of  the,  172,  178,  179. 

Tribunals  of  arbitration,  167-170. 

Troilus  and  Cressida,  359. 

Trollope,  Anthony,  his  controversy 
with  E.  A.  Freeman  as  to  fox-hunt- 
ing, 283. 

Tylor,  T.  B.,  30. 

Tyndall,  John,  337. 

"  Uncle  Good,"  71. 

Uniformity  in  geology,  10. 

Union,  the  sentiment  of,  180,  181. 

[Jnitarian  movement,  the,  148-151. 

Universalism,  148. 

University  Press  in  Cambridge,  297, 

308. 
Upham,  C.  W.,  155. 
Uranus,  the  planet,  5. 

Vane,  Sir  Henry,  139,  154-165. 

Vasari's  "  Lives  of  the  Painters,"  372. 

Venice,  would  not  accept  the  Inquisi- 
tion, 135 ;  her  crime  against  Con- 
stantinople, 287. 

"  Venus  and  Adonis,"  370,  371. 

Vesalius,  A.,  401. 

"  Vestiges  of  Creation,"  77. 

Vico,  G.  B.,  352. 

Vindex, a  paradoxer,  442. 

Vining,  Edward,  400. 

Virginia  and  religious  freedom,  141, 
142. 

Volney,  Count,  422. 


Index 


All 


Voltaire,     149 ;    his     remark     about 
Shakespeare,  399. 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  24,  30,  102-104. 
Washington's  Farewell  Address,  193. 
Watertown,  its  protest  against  taxa- 
tion without  representation,  291. 
Webster,  John,  373. 
West,  Rev.  Samuel,  300. 
West  Gat9  of  Cambridge,  296. 
Whewell,  William,  411,  435. 
Whitman,  Walt,  338. 
Wilder,  S.  H.,  58. 
William  and  Mary,  138. 


Williams,  Roger,   134,   139-141,   161, 

162. 
Winthrop,  John,  146. 
Wolf,  F.  A.,  352 ;  his  theory  of  the 

Homeric  poems,  352-354. 
Wolf,  K.  F.,  41. 
Wolves  and  bears  in  Cambridge,  296. 

Xicotencatl,  202. 

Tonnondio,  200. 

Youmans,  E.  L.,  67-99,  453-455. 
Youmans,  Vincent,  67-71. 
Young,  Thomas,  27. 


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qth  Thousand.     With  8  Maps.     2  vols,  crown  8vo,  gilt  top,  $4.00. 

Devoted  to  the  founding  and  growth  of  colonies  in  New  York  and  Penn- 
sylvania. 

THE    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION. 

With  Plans  of  Battles  and  a  new  steel  Portrait  of  Washington, 
23th  Thousand.    2  vols,  crown  8vo,  gilt  top,  {^4.00. 

The  reader  may  turn  over  these  volumes  with  full  assurance  of  faith  for 
a  fresh  rehearsal  of  the  old  facts,  which  no  time  can  stale,  and  for  new 
views  of  those  old  facts,  according  to  the  larger  framework  of  ideas  in  which 
they  can  now  be  set  by  the  master  of  a  captivating  style  and  an  expert  in 
historical  philosophy.  —  New  York  Evening^  Fast. 

Illustrated  Edition.  Containing  Portraits,  Maps,  Facsimiles,  Con- 
temporary Views,  Prints,  and  other  historic  materials.  2  vols.  8vo, 
$8.00. 

THE   CRITICAL  PERIOD   OF  AMERICAN    HIS- 
TORY,  1 783-1 789. 

With  a  colored  Map.     34th  Thousand.    Crown  8vo,  gilt  top,  $2.00. 
What  impresses  us  most  is  the  breadth  of  view  and  liberality  of  the  author. 
— Political  Science  Quarterly. 

Illustrated  Edition.  With  about  170  Illustrations,  comprising  Por- 
traits, Maps,  Facsimiles,  Contemporary  Views,  Prints,  and  other 
historical  materials.     8vo,  ^4.00. 

THE  WAR    OF    INDEPENDENCE. 

In  Riverside  Library  for  Young  People.  Maps.  4jth  Thousand. 
75  cents. 

This  story  of  the  war  is  brilliant  and  effective  beyond  measure.  —  Mrs. 
C.  H.  Dall. 


HISTORY     OF     THE     UNITED     STATES     FOR 
SCHOOLS. 

Very  fully  illustrated  with  Maps,  Portraits,  etc.    Cr.  8vo,  Ji.oo,  net. 
It  is  a  sound,  wise,  and  fascinating  book ;  it  combines  in  a  rare  degree 
accuracy,  intelligent  condensaiion,  liistorical  discrimination,  and  an  attrac- 
tive style.  —  The  Outlook  (New  York). 

CIVIL  GOVERNMExNT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
With  some  Reference  to  its  Origins.    Crown  8vo,  ^i.oo,  net. 

It  is  most  admirable,  alike  in  plan  and  in  execution,  and  will  do  a  vast 
amount  of  good  in  tenching  our  people  the  principles  and  forms  of  our  civil 
institutions.  —  Muses  Coit  'Yyx.Kv.,  Professor  of  A  merican  Constitutional 
History  arid  Law,  Cornell  University. 

ESSAYS  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

A  CENTURY   OF    SCIENCE,   AND    OTHER   ES- 
SAYS. 
Crown  8vo,  gilt  top,  j?2.oo. 

OUTLINES    OF   COSMIC   PHILOSOPHY. 

Based  on  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution,    jth  Thousand.    2  vols.  8vo, 
gilt  top,  ^6.00. 

I'his  work  of  Mr.  Fiske's  may  be  not  unfairly  designated  the  most  impor- 
tant contribution  yet  made  by  America  to  philosophical  literature.  —  The 
Academy  (London). 

MYTHS   AND    MYTH-MAKERS. 

Old  Tales  and  Superstitions  interpreted  by  Comparative  Mythology. 
loth  Thousand.     Crown  Svo,  gilt  top,  j?2.oo. 

DARWINISM,  AND   OTHER   ESSAYS. 
4th  Thousand.     Crown  Svo,  gilt  top,  ^2.00. 

EXCURSIONS    OF  AN    EVOLUTIONIST. 

Bth  Thousand.     Crown  Svo,  gilt  top,  ^2.00. 

THE  UNSEEN   WORLD,  AND   OTHER  ESSAYS. 

8th  Thousand.     Crown  Svo,  gilt  top,  ^2.00. 
THE     DESTINY    OF     MAN,    VIEWED    IN    THE 
LIGHT   OF    HIS    ORIGIN. 

2bth  Thousand.     i6mo,  gilt  top,  ^i.oo. 

•THE    IDEA  OF   GOD   AS  AFFECTED  BY  MOD- 
ERN   KNOWLEDGE. 

20th  Thousand.     i6mo,  gilt  top,  ^i.oo. 

THROUGH    NATURE    TO   GOD. 
14th  Thousand.     i6mo,  gilt  top,  $1.00. 

Mr.  Fiske  does  not  write  unless  he  has  something  to  say;  and  when  he 
dops  write  he  shows  not  only  that  he  has  thoroughly  acquainted  himself 
with  the  subject,  but  that  he  has  to  a  rare  degree  the  art  of  so  massing  his 
matter  as  to  bring  out  the  true  value  of  the  leading  points  in  artistic  relief. 
It  is  this  perspective  which  makes  his  work  such  agreeable  reading  even  on 
abstruse  subjects.  —  The  Nation  (New  York). 

For  sale  by  all  Booksellers.      Sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price  by  the 
Publishers, 

HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN   &   CO.,   Boston. 
II  East  Seventeenth  Street,  New  York. 


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